3Frflm  tl|?  fftbrar^  of 

l^qupatl|0&  by  Ijitm  ta 

tl|f  ffitbrarg  of 

Hrtnrrtntt  ^IjMlcntral  ^^mttiartt 

BL  240  .C72  1896 

Crafts,  Wilbur  Fisk,  1850- 

1922. 

Before  the  lost  arts  and 


w^ 


jI^Zc 


■^^^c 


^. 


Before  the  Lost  Arts 

AND  OTHER  LECTURES 


BY 


Rev.  WILBUR  F.  CRAFTS,  Ph.D. 

AUTHOR    OF 

''The  Sabbath  for  Man"  ''Practical  Christian  Sociology," 
'Successful  Men  of  To-day  "  "Reading  the  Bible  ivith  Relish,''  etc.,  etc. 


THE    REFORM    BUREAU 

3IO    Delaware    Avenue,    N".    E. 

WASHINGTON,  D.   C. 


CopvKicin T.  i8q6,  by 
Rr.v.  WILBUR  F.  CRAFTS 


BURR  PRINTING  HOU<5E,    NEW  YORK. 


I. 


BEFORE   TH1-:    LOST   ARTS. 


SAWS,   ]IAM.MKKS  AM'  AXK->    OV  ANCIENT    EGYPT, 

()iil\'  reinventions 
(^f  "  lost  arts"  that 
were  in  use  thou- 
sands of  years  asfo. ' 


"  '  T'hecuts  here  given, 
representing  tools  in 
iise  about  3500  years 
ago,  are  from  IVic  Lit- 
erary Digest  of  Feb- 
ruary I,  iSg6,  which  re- 
printed them,  with  ex- 
planation and  discus- 
sion, from  Industries 
and  Iron,  London,  De- 
cember 13,  1895.  Those 
who  wish  to  know  more 
of  the  "  lost  arts"  should 
consult  also  cyclopedias 
and  learned  works  on 
discoveries  in  Pompeii, 
Troy,  Mycenae,  Cyprus,  etc 
a  passing  reference  is  necessary 


s^  I.  MODERX 
explorations  in 
the  ruins  of  an- 
cient cities  have 
shown  t  h  a  t 
niaiiv  tools  and 
implements  that 
had  been  sup- 
posed to  belong 
exclusively  to 
modern  times 
are     in.    reality 


AXES,    CHISELS   AM 


I'ov  the  pm-poses  of  th  s  lectin-e,  only 


4  BEFORE   THE   LOST  ARTS. 

These  ancient  implements,  which  some  of  us  have  seen, 
and  which  have  been  certified  to  all  others  by  iinques- 
tioned  testi^nony,  are  to  us  all  satisfactory  proof  that  in 
the  times  and  places  to  which  they  belong  there  existed 
minds  like  ours,  intelligent  and  inventive. 

But  other  explorations  have  proved  the  existence 
of  more  numerous  and  more  wonderful  tools  and 
even  machines  at  a  much  more  remote  period. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  beginnings  of  science 
were  in  the  cells  of  the  alchemists  and  astrologers. 
The  most  ancient  implements  and  machines  referred 
to  are  found  in  connection  with  more  ancient  cells, 
where  they  were  wrought  centuries  before  Venice 
worked  in  glass  or  Egypt  built  her  pyramids. 

The  following  is  a  partial  list  of  these  most  ancient 
implements  and  machines  and  their  products  :  nee- 
dles, lances,  scissors,  scissors- lances,  spears,  picks, 
forks,  hooks,  swords,  trowels,  spades,  self-sharpen- 
ing chisels,  pincers,  forceps,  augers,  spokeshaves, 
files,  common  saws,  circular  saws,  band  saws,  bel- 
lows, pulleys,  levers  of  the  three  kinds,  hair  brushes 
and  combs,  syringes,  anchors,  grapnels,  goblets, 
thread,  elastic  fish  hues,  cables,  nets,  burlap,  lace, 
paper,  self-adjusting,  self-cleansing  opera  glasses, 
lenses,  microscopes,  telescopes,  photographic  cam- 
eras, electric  weapons,  electric  lights,  beveled  trap 
doors,  folding  doors,  dovetailed  boards,  slate  and 
tile  roofs,  grated  windows,  suction  pumps,  pot  fur- 
naces, radiators,  covered  heating  pipes,  filters,  life- 
boats (made  with  compartments  like  modern  ships, 
which  are  also  air  chambers),  balloons,  air  guns, 
drums,  bugles,  bells,  whistles,  trombones,  flageolets, 
taborets,  clarionets,  trumpets,  violins,  pipe  organs, 
self-dressing    millstones,    roller    skates,    submarine 


BEFORE   THE    LOST   ARTS.  5 

cement,  glue,  hollow  pillars  (so  made  to  combine 
lightness  and  strength),  buttresses,  girders,  arches, 
domes,  telegraph  lines  and  telephones. 

I  perceive  in  your  faces  two  kinds  of  expression, 
which  remind  me  of  an  incident.  A  Western  man 
having  told  a  story  of  even  more  than  the  usual 
Western  dimensions,  one  of  his  hearers  showed  no 
amazement.  The  narrator  turned  on  him  sharply 
and  said:  "You  don't  seem  surprised  at  that?" 
"  No,"  said  his  calm  auditor,  "  I  am  a  liar  myself." 
But  when  I  shall  have  convinced  this  audience,  as  I 
have  the  many  audiences  to  which  this  lecture  has 
been  delivered  all  over  the  United  States  and  Can- 
ada and  Great  Britain,  that  I  have  not  spoken  in  a 
Pickwickian,  not  even  in  a  poetical  sense,  in  giving 
you  this  partial  list  of  ancient  tools  and  machines, 
but  rather  have  spoken  historically  and  scientifically, 
then,  by  the  same  logic  ivhich  you  accepted  a  fezu  mo- 
ments since,  these  most  ancient  tools  and  machines  will 
prove  that  at  the  times  and  places  when  and  where  they 
existed  there  was  mind  at  zvork,  intelligent  and  inventive^ 
like  oitrs  in  kind,  hoivever  different  in  degree. 

These  implements  and  machines  all  existed  before 
man  made  his  first  invention.  The  ancient  "  cells" 
in  connection  with  which  they  are  found  are  those 
which  so  wonderfully  underlie  all  animal  and  vege- 
table Ufe,  sometimes  so  minute  that  half  a  million  of 
them  may  be  found  in  a  single  square  inch  of  flesh. 

The  vegetable  cells  in  the  picture  (see  next  page), 
some  of  them  cut  in  two,  some  of  them  closed  as  in 
nature,  remind  us,  as  do  many  forms  in  the  yet  lower 
mineral  kingdom,  that  "God  geometrizes."  But 
the  less  beautiful  cells  of  the  animal  kingdom  are 
really  more  wonderful.     In  this  magnified  view  of  a 


C)  ULU-UKK    'IHK    l.UST    ARTS. 

living  frog's  tongue  we  see  the  living  bioplasm,  that 
spins  and  weaves  all  animal  bodies,  in  the  cells  oi 
non-living  matter  where  it  works  its  wonders. 

These  minute  cells  have  recently  proved  mighty 
fortresses  of  faith.  Dr.  Burdon  Sanderson,  in  his 
address  as   Presich'nt  of  tho    Briti^li  Association    lor 


^^ 


'km     '^W^'  M'f 


CELLS   IN    FROG  S   TONGUE, 
(From  Cook's  Biology.) 


VEGETABLE    CELLS. 
(From  Gray's  Botany.) 


the  Advancement  of  Science,  in  1893,  declared,  with 
the  manifest  approval  of  that  foremost  of  scientific 
bodies,  that  the  materialistic  theory  of  the  universe 
had  broken  down  in  the  presence  of  these  micro- 
scopic cells,  each  of  which  manifests  a  "  specific 
energy"  inconsistent  with  any  mechanical  theory  of 
causation.  His  successors  in  that  premiership  of 
science.  Lord  Salisbury  and  Sir  Douglass  Galton, 
each  repeated,  with  the  increasing  approval  of  the 
Association,  the  declaration  that  materialism  has  ut- 
terly failed  to  make  out  its  case.  The  recent  return 
to  faith  of  Romanes,'  the  very  champion  of  material- 

2  The  story  of  the  conversion  of  Geori:{e  John  Romanes,  as  given 
in  his posthumcms  book,  "  Thon.ohtson  Religion"  (The  Open  Court 


p.F.i'.Rr:  TiTF.  losr  arts.  ; 

istic  evolution,  whom  Darwin  declared  to  be  the 
most  intellectual  of  living  men,  is  another  sign  that 
science,  as  it  passes  the  sophomoric  period,  is  find- 
ing that  cells  and  cosmos  alike  proclaim  an  intelli- 
gent Cause. 

That  this  reaction  of  scientific  men  toward  theism 
and  Christianity  is  not  confined  to  F>ngland  but  is 
general  is  declared  by  M.  Brunetiere  in  the  Revue  des 
Deux  MondeSy^  which  The  Outlook  characterizes  as 
**the  foremost  organ  of  literary  opinion  in  the 
world."  There  have  been,  he  says,  in  effect,  three 
different  attitudes  taken  by  scientific  men  toward  re- 
Publishing  Co.,  Chicago,  111.,  Si. 25) and  in  The  Bibliotheca  Sacra, 
January,  1896,  p.  68  (Oberlin,  O.,  75  cents),  is  likely  to  be  of  great 
benefit  to  those  who  are  perplexed  with  doubts  suggested  by  sci- 
ence. On  p.  165  of  "'Thoughts  on  Religion,"  he  says  of  his 
changed  views:  "I  took  it  for  granted  that  Christianity  was 
played  out,  and  never  considered  it  at  all  as  having  any  rational 
bearing  on  the  question  of  theism  And,  though  this  was  doubt- 
less inexcusable,  I  still  think  that  the  rational  standing  of  Chris- 
tianity has  materially  improved  since  then.  '  For  then  it  seemed 
that  Christianity  was  destined  to  succumb  as  a  rational  system  be- 
fore the  double  assault  of  Darwin  from  without  and  the  negative 
school  of  criticism  from  within.  Not  only  the  book  of  organic  na- 
ture, but  likewise  its  own  sacred  documents,  seemed  to  be  declar- 
ing against  it.  But  now  all  this  has  been  very  materially  changed. 
We  have  all  more  or  less  grown  to  see  that  Darwinism  is  like 
Copernicanism,  etc.,  in  this  respect  ;  while  the  outcome  of  the  great 
textual  battle  is  impartially  considered  a  signal  victory  for  Chris 
tianity." 

3  By  Professor  N.  S.  Shaler,  of  Harvard  University,  also  Homi- 
Ictic' Review,  November,  1S95,  and  by  President  Schurman.oi 
Cornell  X^niversity,  The  latter  recently  said  in  the  Pliitosophit  0/ 
Review :  "  Does  not  the  light  already  shine  for  all  who  liuve  eyes 
to  see?  The  conception  of  Cod  as  spiritual  and  not  mechanical  ; 
as  immanent,  not  external  ;  as  working  by  law.  not  by  caprice, 
and  with  steady,  infinite  patience,  not  by  catastrophic  outbursts  ; 
as  adumbrated'in  nature  and  revealed  in  the  moral  and  spiritual 
qualities  of  man,  who  is  the  goal  of  evolution  and  the  epitome  and 
abridgment  of  existence  :  is  not  this  conception,  in  combination 
with  the  idea  of  the  divine  Fatherhood  (which  is  the  essence  of 
Christianity),  taking  possession  of  the  best  spirits  of  the  modern 
world  and  dislodging  the  agnosticism  by  which  it  was  preceded 
and  by  which,  in  a  sense,  it  was  originated  ?"  See  also  President 
Schurman's  since  published  book,  "Agnosticism  and  Religion"' 
(Scribners,  New  York). 


8  BEFORE  THE   LOST   ARTS. 

ligion.  In  the  last  century  the  attitude  of  most  sci- 
entists toward  rehgion  was  one  of  contempt.  Faith 
of  all  kinds  was  treated  as  a  relic  of  the  superstitions 
of  the  childhood  of  the  race,  and  religious  phenomena 
of  all  kinds  were  quietly  put  aside  as  unworthy  of 
investigation.  This  attitude  was  succeeded  by  that 
of  the  middle  years  of  the  present  century,  when  sci- 
entific activity  was  at  its  height,  and  when  the  ex- 
pectations of  discovery  and  revelation  from  science 
were  almost  boundless.  At  that  time,  M.  Brunetiere 
declares,  religion  was  no  longer  despised,  but  it  was 
treated  simply  as  a  phase  in  the  history  of  the  de- 
velopment of  humanity,  worthy  of  careful  study  and 
of  immense  influence  in  the  past,  but  permanently 
superseded  by  science.  This  attitude  has  been  for- 
saken, according  to  this  writer,  for  another  attitude, 
which  he  declares  will  be  that  of  the  scientific  men 
of  the  next  century — an  attitude  in  which  the  claims 
of  science  are  very  much  moderated,  and  the  claims 
of  religion  very  much  more  heartily  recognized, 
with  a  growing  perception  that  the  apparent  an- 
tagonism between  the  two  has  been  superficial  rather 
than  real,  and  that  there  is  in  religion  a  permanent 
element,  the  expression  of  which  science  may  mod- 
ify, but  which  it  cannot  destroy. 

In  this  rout  of  materialism,  as  1  have  said,  these 
microscopic  cells  have  had  a  decisive  part.  They 
are  not  only  the  fortresses  but  also  the  workshops 
and  laboratories  of  the  invisible  Wisdom,  of  the  origi- 
nal Mind,  zvJio  manifests  in  his  works,  design,  order 
and  progress,  as  does  the  human  mind,  only  the  Divine 
Mind,  being  perfect  in  knowledge  and  skill,  used  in  the  very 
beginning  many  of  the  same  mechanical  devices  that  man, 
the  son  of  God,  thinking  God's  thoughts  after  him,  has 


BEFORE   THE   LOST   ARTS. 


fST 


t^ 


r^:-. 


come  to  2ise  less  perfectly  after  six  tJiousaiid  years  of 
experiment  and  study. 

For  instance,  take  that  simplest  of  all  mechanical 
appliances,  a  point.  A  Boston  lecturer  magnified 
the  point  of  the  finest  cambric  needle,  and  so  made  it 
appear  on  his  stereopticon  screen  like  a  stub  pen,  four 
inches  across  the  end.  But  a  bee  sting  equally  mag- 
nified retained  its  point,  and  the  lecturer  said,  "  Man 
cannot  make  a  point,  but  God  can."  Man  is  also 
far  behmd  in  the  making  of  fine  thread.  His  hand  is 
not  able  to  make  it  as  fine  as  his  own  mind  requires. 
For  the  microme- 
ter, a  metal  frame- 
work, crossed  with 
threads,  which  is 
placed  in  the  eye- 
piece of  telescopes 
to  measure  astro- 
nomical distances, 
man  has  tried  in 
vain  to  furnish  a 
wire  or  thread   of 

requisite  fineness,  and  so  has  had  to  use  the  thread 
that  the  Creator  makes  in  the  spider's  mill.  The  finest 
wires  man's  science  has  enabled  him  to  make  for  this 
purpose  are  shown,  magnified,  in  figures  i  (platinum) 
and  2  (German  silver),  while  figure  3  shows  the  much 
finer  spider  thread.  In  the  Observatory  clock  at 
Cincinnati,  a  spider  thread  was  used  (all  other  wires 
and  threads  being  too  heavy)  to  carry  an  automatic 
telegram  of  every  tick.  Attached  to  the  pendulum 
at  one  end,  it  was  so  delicate  as  not  in  the  least  to 
retard  the  clock,  and  yet  this  natural  telegraph  wire 
was  strong  enough  to  serve  two.  years,  with  no  sign 


lo  riKiORi-:  'iiii:  i.<>m'  a  ins. 

of  wear,  being  broken  at  that  time  because  oi 
changes  to  be  made  in  the  clock,  These  fine  threads 
for  scientific  purposes  are  spun  "  to  order"  by  the 
male  spider,  whose  thread  is  finer  than  his  mate's. 
A  pencil  is  placed  against  the  thread  gland  of  the 
spider,  and  he  is  then  lifted  up.  He  at  once  begins 
to  spin,  falling  from  the  pencil  to  winch  he  has  made 
fast  the  thread  like  a  fire-escape  rope.  The  thread 
is  then  wound  round  about  the  pencil  as  if  it  were  a 
spool.  Fine  as  this  thread  is,  it  is  a  cable  woven  of 
a  thousand  finer  threads.* 

Another  illustration  of  the  fact  that  the  Divine 
Mind,  though  like  ours,  is  greater,  not  only  in  the 
quantity  but  also  in  the  quality  of  his  inventions,  is 
the  natural  opera  glass  of  the  eyes.  There  are  two 
eyes  rather  than  one  for  the  same  reasons,  manifest- 
ly, as  that  there  are  two  eye  pieces  in  opera  glasses, 
stereoscopes,  and  other  double  glasses,  namely,  to 
gi\ne  completer  and  more  correct  vision,  especially 
with  reference  to  solidity.  But  while  the  double 
glasses  of  man's  making  have  to  be  washed,  and  also 
adjusted  by  wheels  to  near  and  remote  objects  and 
to  different  degrees  of  light,  our  natural  opera  glasses 
adjust  themselves  instantly  to  varying  distances,  and 
more  slowly  to  a  change  from  light  to  compaiative 
darkness.  When  one  })asses  from  the  sunblazc  ol 
noon  into  a  half -darkened  room,  he  can  see  nothing 
at  first,  but  presently  in  a  slight  sense  of  pain  he  can 
almost  feel  the  turning  of  the  wheels  as  the  self-ad- 
justing opera  glass  of  his  eyes  adapts  itself  to  the 
partial  darkness.  This  self-adjustment  in  the  case  of 
the   cat's  eyes  is  yet   more   perfect.      In  our  army 

i...>^w  .-^      J':vL-iiin,y,-,  at  the  Microscope"  (Appleton's,  p.  246). 


P.F.FORF.    'I'lri  MM  -.  i  I 

tiiere  was  a  soldier  known  as  "  the  natural  picket" 
because  he  had  a  cat's  eve  wliich  could  see  on  the 
darkest  nights,  for  wliich  his  shaie  of  picket  dutv 
was  therefore  reserved.  Our  natural  opera  glass  is 
also  self-adjusting-  in  regard  to  position,  having  pul- 
leys bv  which  it  turns,  without  other  help  than  the 
will,  up  i)r  down,  right  or  left.  The  opera  glass  also 
washes  itself  from  the  tear  ducts,  and  puts  itself  in 
its  case  by  closing  the  lids  when  its  "  sight-seeing" 
is  over  for  the  time.  In  the  insect-eating  birds  the 
eyes  form  a  double  microscope,  a  new  thing  in  art 
but  old  in  nature,  and  in  the  case  of  vultures  the 
eyes  form  a  double  telescope,  which  art  has  not  yet 
copied. 

That  divine  machines,  though  like  man's,  are  more 
perfect  will  appear  all  through  our  study  ;  but  1 
will  name  here,  at  the  threshold  of  our  subject,  one 
more  example  of  this  superiority,  namely,  the  human 
hand.  It  is  it  once  a  hammer,  a  vice,  a  forceps,  a 
hook,  a  spoon,  a  paddle,  a  club  ;  it  also  includes 
nearly  all  the  tools  a  sculptor  requires  m  modeling  ; 
and  besides  being  a  whole  chest  of  tools,  it  is  a  com- 
plete signal  service  for  expressing  the  feeling  of  the 
heart  and  the  thought  of  the  brain.  Man's  hand 
never  has  been  skillful  enough  to  make  another  ma- 
chine as  wonderful  as  itself  in  the  varietv  of  its  pow- 
ers and  the  compactness  of  their  arrangement. 

Nature  shows  Mind,  Mind  like  ours,  but  greater, 
as  a  father's  skill  excels  that  of  a  half-developed  child. 

T/tal  a  Mind  like  ours  but  infinitely  greater  created 
and  sustains  the  visible  zvorld  is  also  strikingly  shown  in 
the  fact  that  not  infrequently  the  niaehinery  of  nature 
has  been  directly  and  consciously  copied  by  human 
machinists. 


12  BEFORE   THE   LOST   ARTS. 

One  of  the  most  valuable  lances  used  in  surgery, 
the  scissors- lance,  was  copied  from  the  microscopic 
lance  of  the  black  fiy  of  the  Adirondacks.  The 
scissors-lance  of  the  surgeon  pierces  the  skin  with 
the  scissors  closed,  and  then,  by  a  remarkable  me- 
chanical contrivance,  the  scissors  are  opened  in- 
ternally to  cut  away  a  tumor  or  some  other  intrusive 
matter.  No  one  would  say  the  copy  did  not  repre- 
sent a  designing  mind.  What  of  the  original  ?  It 
was  manifestly  made  for  the  purpose  of  supplying 
the  insect  with  its  food.  Having  pierced  the  skin, 
making  but  a  tiny  puncture,  the  scissors  are  opened 
to  increase  the  flow  of  blood,  which,  because  the  ex- 
ternal cut  is  very  small,  cannot  escape,  and  then  a 
suction  pump  draws  it  up,  after  which  a  brush  re- 
sembling those  used  for  kerosene  lamp  chimneys  is 
used  to  clean  the  lance  for  future  use. 

The  points  of  our  modern  augers  were  copied  from 
the  wonderful  head  of  the  locust  borer,  a  Uttle  worm 
about  an  inch  long  and  so  soft,  except  its  tiny  head, 
that  a  child  could  crush  it  in  its  fingers,  and  yet  so 
capable  of  boring  the  hardest  wood  that  the  one 
which  I  have  was  taken  from  a  hickory  log,  in  split- 
ting which  two  strong  men  broke  an  iron  wedge. 
Some  years  ago  a  man  of  inventive  turn  of  mind  be- 
thought him  that  this  living  auger  might  teach  man 
how  to  improve  boring  tools,  and,  having  examined 
microscopically  his  little  horns,  transferred  them  to 
the  bits  we  now  use.  Boats  have  been  built  from 
the  days  of  canoes  on  the  pattern  of  ducks  and  fish. 
The  swan  is  a  beautiful  propeller  yacht  with  a  lofty 
pilot  house  at  the  bow.  Pot  furnaces  were  copied 
from  certain  eminences  in  the  alimentary  canal.  So 
the  ship-worm,  which  bores  by  means  of  a  funnel- 


THE    SHINING    COMETS   OF   THE    SEA. 
(From  Christian  Work,  April  26,  1894.     See  also  same,  December  6,  1S94.) 


J5EFOKE    THE    LOS  r   ARTS.  1  : 

like  projection  on  its  head  and  enamels  the  sides  of 
his  tnnnels,  gave  the  lanions  engineer  Brunei  the 
successful  method  of  boring-  and  the  idea  of  putting 
. cast-iron  linings  mto  the  treacherous  tunnels  he  cut 
through  the  sand  of  the  Thames,  which  had  pre- 
viously defeated  him  again  and  again.  The  Eddy- 
stone  Lighthouse,  which  has  stood  the  storms  of  a 
century,  was  patterned  from  a  tree  trunk — is,  in- 
deed, an  oak  of  granite.  And  when  architects  had 
failed  to  present  a  safe  plan  for  the  Crystal  Palace  of 
London,  a  gardener,  the  now  famous  Paxton,  copied 
the  architecture  of  the  Victoria  Regia  leaf.  The 
band  stands  at  the  Crystal  Palace  and  at  Conev 
Island  in  the  L^nited  States  are  copied  from  the 
human  mouth,  in  recognition  that  God's  sounding 
board  is  the  best.  The  living  phosphorescent  lights 
of  the  sea,  jellyfish,  starfish,  and  luminous  sharks, 
use  an  illuminant  that  man  has  not  yet  copied,  while 
electric  tish  show  that  God  finds  no  insuperable  prob- 
lem in  storage  electricity.  Some  of  these  lamp  fish 
have  been  used  by  sailors  for  lamps.  \n  one  case  a 
group  of  six  pyrosom^e  were  placed  in  a  globe  of 
glass  and  used  as  a  cabin  chandelier.  Some  lumi- 
nous plants  and  insects  have  also  been  used  as  lamps. 
Professor  D' Arson val,  of  the  College  of  France,  ac- 
cording to  the  Scientific  Aincricaii,  has  lighted  small 
electric  lamps  by  applying  them  to  the  torpedo  fish, 
which  give  out  a  shock  of  from  tvventy  to  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  volts — a  power  usual Iv  employed 
for  killing  or  paralyzing  their  prev.  In  one  case  the 
shock  was  so  strong  that  it  carbonized  the  lamps. 

That  many  more  machines  in  nature  might  be 
'  opied  with  profit  to  inventors  and  the  j^ublic  is  the 
riiief   burden   of    a    book    called    "Natures    Teach- 


1 6  BEFORE   THE   LOST  ARTS. 

ings,"  by  Rev.  J.  E.  Wood,"  published  since  I  began 
to  deliver  this  lecture.  (It  discusses  the  machines 
of  nature  from  a  standpoint  far  different  from  mine  ; 
but  from  it  I  have  derived  many  facts  not  other- 
wheres found,  besides  many  pictures  of  objects  that 
1  had  discussed  previous  to  its  publication  without 
pictorial  aids.) 

As  we  turn  from  the  aspect  of  the  subject  which 
we  have  been  discussing,  it  is  pertinent  to  ask,  If 
the  copying  of  machines  from  nature  shows  intelli- 
gence, does  not  their  origination  evidence  it  still 
more  ? 

The  main  argument  of  this  lecture  was  suggested 
by  Wendell  Phillips's  lecture  on  "  The  Lost  Arts," 
which  I  heard  in  1870.  As  he  told  of  the  alleged 
arts  of  antiquity  (now  known  to  have  been  greatly 
overestimated  by  him)  the  thought  occurred  to  me 
that  nature's  machines,  more  numerous  and  more 
wonderful,  were  much  older,  and  that  if  the  "  lost 
arts"  prove  intelligence  in  the  age  to  which  they  be- 
long, the  tools  of  nature  that  existed  before  the  lost 
arts  prove  yet  more  clearly  the  greater  intelligence 
of  the  world's  Author,  and  man's  kinship  to  him.'' 

Let  us  deepen  our  sense  of  the  reality  of  a  personal 
God  and  our  sonship  by  a  rapid  survey  of  many  ma- 
chines which  God  and  man  have  each  invented  sepa- 
rately with  like  purpose. 

§  2.   Former  ages  have  seen  the  greatness  of  the 

5  Daldy,  Isbister  &  Co.,  56  Ludgate  Hill,  London,  England. 

«  Mr.  L.  A.  Maj-nard,  of  Christiait  Work  (March  29,  1894), 
in  an  article  on  "  Children  of  the  King,"  says  :  "  I  think  there 
is  a  tendency  among  those  who  preach  to  us  from  the  pulpit  and 
from  the  printed  page  to  dwell  too  much  upon  the  weakness 
and  littleness  of  men.  ...  As  Christ  taught -the  virtues  of  humil- 
ity and  meekness,  that  man  can  do  nothing  of  himself,  ...  so 
also  he  taught  that  men  are  the  sons  of  God. ' ' 


BEFORE   THE    LOST  ARTS.  1 7 

Creator  chiefly  in  the  infinitely  great — the  sea  and 
sky.  But  the  microscope's  revelation  of  God  is 
even  more  wonderful.  Mastery  of  details  is  tne 
rarest  mastery.  Daniel  Webster,  being  asked  for 
the  best  evidence  of  greatness  shown  by  Sir  Robert 
Peel,  quoted  from  one  of  his  addresses,  as  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer,  these  words,  **  Now  we  come  to 
the  onion  seed."     That  he  should   have  taken  ac- 


;PXVDEtfOX   6KEU    BAtLOOV 


count  of  such  small  products  in  seeking  to  prevent 
taxes  from  being  burdensome  anywhere  was  count- 
ed a  rare  mark  of  genius.  So  the  greatness  of  God 
appears  in  nothing  so  marvelous  as  in  his  mastery  of 
the  minute  and  multitudinous  details  of  his  kingdom. 
See  how  he  equips  the  dandelion  seed,  humbler  than 
the  onion  seed,  with  a  balloon  and  grapphng  hooks. 
Beside  it  behold  what  botanists  call  a  corymb,  but 
what  1  choose  to  call  the  golden  candlestick  flower, 
proclaiming  as  its  Author  a  Mind  loving  beauty  and 
symmetry  as  it  holds  aloft  its  floral  incense  lamps  m 


1 8  BEFORE   THE   LOST   ARTS. 

his  praise.  Is  there  no  Mind  back  of  the  70,000  per- 
fect lenses  in  the  eye  of  the  tortoise-shell  beetle,  or 
the  10,000  in  the  eye  of  the  common  fly,  or  the 
hexagonal  cells  of  the  wasp's  beautiftil  paper  palace  ? 
Making  paper  from  wood  pulp  is  a  new  art  among 
men,  but  old  as  the  world  among  wasps.  The  Jap- 
anese have  learned  in  modern  times  the  value  of 
paper  houses.  The  wasps  were  taught  this  ages 
ago.     On  the  walls  of  African  huts  one  may  see  the 


\ELELLA.   (XaTURAL-SIZE) 


•WATUK-SXAIL    ACTISG    AS  ROW 


ANCHOR      OF  BTNAPTA.  LEBNKNTOJiA 


paper  tents  that  spiders  have  woven  and  set  up- 
paper  made  of  their  own  threads,  first  one  square 
piece,  then  a  narrow  strip  to  hold  it  down  on  all 
sides,  fastened  with  glue  from  their  own  bodies. 
Under  this  the  eggs  are  placed,  and  on  it  the  spider 
keeps  guard  against  foes.  Speaking  of  threads,  we 
ought  to  mention  the  cables  by  which  the  water 
snail  and  pinna  shell  anchor  themselves— the  latter 
sometimes  woven  into  garments. 

One  of  the  favorite  specimens  of  microscopists  is 


BEFORE   THE   LOST   ARTS.  I9 

the  synapta,  a  tiny  creature  of  the  sea,  ivhich  has 
four  anchors  in  place  of  hands  and  feet.  As  in  the 
story  of  Paul's  shipwreck,  when  danger  threatens 
he  "  casts  four  anchors  out  of  the  ship  and  waits  for 
the  day."  And  the  anchors  are  almost  exactly  like 
those  used  in  the  voyage  of  Paul,  as  we  see  them  on 
ancient  Roman  coins.  The  lernentoma,  a  parasite, 
has  a  grapnel  head  with  which  he  grapples,  pirate 
fashion,  the  sprat  on  which  he  is  to  feed.  There  are 
sponges  also  that  are  live  grapnels.  The  velella,  a 
living  raft,  carries  a  living  sail.  The  violet  snail 
carries  a  pocket  raft  which  it  inflates  with  air,  and  so 
makes  a  life  raft  that  cannot  sink  and  by  which  it  is 
transported.  The  water-snail  and  water-boatman 
each  carry  a  boat  in  their  journeys,  hke  an  Adiron- 
dack tourist,  the  former  keeping  his  boat  tucked 
under  his  armor  when  not  in  use,  the  other  wearing 
his  boat,  keel  upward,  as  a  coat  when  not  in  the 
water.  The  water-snail  depends  on  the  wind,  but 
the  swifter  water-boatman  has  a  set  of  arms  that  are 
oars  with  a  wonderful  power  to  "  feather"  by  con- 
traction, as  do  natural  oars  in  the  fins  of  fishes,  the 
tails  of  lobsters,  and  the  webbed  feet  of  aquatic  fowls 
also.  Here  it  will  be  suitable  to  mention  that  the 
tails  of  fish  and  of  sea  animals  are  at  once  rudders 
and  propellers,  like  sculling  oars,  the  fins  being  in 
various  cases,  oars,  keels,  and  center  boards.  Older 
than  any  human  lifeboat  is  the  eggboat  of  the  gnat, 
which  no  waves  can  sink  because  of  its  air-tight  com- 
partments, consisting  of  attached  egg-shells,  each 
with  a  trap  door  to  let  the  gnat,  when  hatched,  into 
water.  The  mother  gnat  protects  her  young  as  in- 
telligently as  the  mother  of  Moses,  who  made  water- 
tight the  wicker  boat  in  which  she  laid  him  by  the 


20 


BEFORE   THE   LOST   ARIS. 


Veuus'  Illy  .'J  I 


river's  brink.  Natural  trap  doors  are  found  not 
only  in  gnat  eggs,  but  also  in  beveled  form  at  the  en- 
trance to  the  trap-door  spider's  hole.  They  are  also 
found  in  the  camel's  nose,  to  pro- 
tect him  against  the  desert  sands, 
and  in  one  form  of  the  Venus  fly- 
traps. These  last  seem  to  be 
electric  traps.  (Surely  here  is 
something  to  be  copied.)  Noth- 
ing slower  than  lightning  would 
be  adequate  to  catch  a  fly.  When 
a  fly's  foot  touches  the  lining  of 
the  dungeon  tower  the  trap  door 
falls  and  the  fl}^  is  suffocated. 
So  in  the  open  trap,  the  touch 
of  a  fly's  foot  brings  the  trap 
together  and  the  fly  is  killed, 
and  in  some  sense  feeds  the 
plant,  apparently.  As  to  the 
camel,  the  ship  of  the  desert,  he 
is  in  every  part  built  for  long 
desert  voyages  as  surely  as  our 
common  ships  for  the  sea — his 
nose,  his  feet,  his  hump,  his  stom- 
ach, in  the  last  of  which  are 
water  barrels  of  leather  for  his 
long  voyage  through  the  sand. 
As  well  say  the  barrels  on  ship- 
board are  **  a  fortuitous  con- 
course of  atoms"  as  to  say  there 
was  no  intelligent  purpose  in 
the  camel's  unusual  water  supply. 

So-called  "  blades"  of  grass  are  really  wedges  of 
remarkable  power  when  below  ground,  and  in  some 


uooK  OP  TKAP-Dooi;  sriuEj;, 


BEFOKK     rilE    LOST    ARTS. 


21 


cases  sword-blades  when  above  it.  (Over.)  We  do 
not  yet  see  the  purpose  of  the  wheels  of  the  chiro- 
dota,  which  are  at  least  forms  of  beauty.  But  the  fil- 
ters or  sieves  of  a  duck's  beak  and  a  whale's  mouth  are 
each  manifestlv  designed  to  sift  out  coarse  substances 
from  the  w^ater.  whose  minute  life  is  used  by  these 
creatures  for 
food.  We  have 
all  seen  a  fly  at 
his  toilet,  but 
not  all  have 
seen  the  two 
brushes  here 
pictured  with 
which  the  task 
is  done.  The 
toucan  daintily 
combs  himself 
with  his  notch- 
ed beak,  an  ef- 
fective bone 
comb.  The 
spider  has  a 
softer  comb. 
The  glow- 
worm larva's 
brush  striking- 
ly resembles  a 
shaving  brush, 
lour  wings. 


K"'^..>    ^\ 

Venus's  Fly-Trap. 


Bees,  wasps,  and  hornets  have  each 
The  two  on  each  side  are  hooked  to- 
gether as  one,  with  hooks  here  pictured,  when  the  in- 
sect is  about  to  fly.  There  is  scarcely  a  form  of 
hook  that  is  not  found  in  some  plant  or  insect  or 
larger  creature.     A   wonderful   chest   of   tools   the 


22  BEFORE   THE   LOST   ARTS. 

mosquito  carries  in  his  mouth — two  lanees,  two 
spears,  two  saws  and  a  suction  pump.  The  wasp 
and  bee  carry  a  smaller  assortment  of  tools  ;  and  it 
is  claimed  for  the  bee  that  his  sting  is  both  sword 
and  trowel  ;  that  while  sometimes  used  for  defense, 
it  is  commonly  used  for  varnishing  and  sealing  his 
honey  cells  and  injecting  formic  acid  into  the  honey. 
The  common  saw-fly  carries  a  saw  in  its  mouth  with 
which  it  saws  a  crease  in  some  soft  branch  as  a  nest 
for  its  eggs.  More  wonderful  is  the  sawyer  beetle, 
a  living  circular  saw,  with  teeth  on  the  inside,  which 
swings  itself  round  and  round,  like  a  g3^mnast  on  a 
trapeze,  in  order  to  get  at  the  juices  of  the  tree  by 
sawing  into  the  wood.  Still  more  wonderful  is  the 
self-renewing  band  saw  of  molluscs,  some  of  which 
— in  the  whelk,  for  instance — have  27,000  teeth. 
When  some  of  the  teeth  are  worn  out  they  are  rolled 
in  to  grow  again  and  a  fresh  section  of  the  band  is 
rolled  out  for  service.  Another  natural  carpenter 
IS  the  hoopshave  bee,  which  shaves  the  soft  down 
Irom  twigs  by  a  double  plane  on  both  sides  the 
mouth,  and  uses  the  down  thus  obtained  as  a  lin- 
crusta-walton  paper  for  its  home.  The  mole  vigor- 
ously wields  a  spade.  The  woodpecker  uses  not  his 
head  only  but  his  whole  body  as  a  pick.  It  will  be 
appropriate  to  name  here  the  natural  file,  equisetum, 
known  as  the  "  Dutch  rush,"  which  is  said  to  sur- 
pass, for  certam  purposes,  all  manufactured  files  and 
sandpapers.  The  beaver's  tooth  chisel  excels  in  one 
respect  all  manufactured  chisels,  namely,  in  that  it 
is  self-dressing  and  self-renewing.  The  front  bemg 
hard  enamel  and  the  back  a  softer  bone,  the  latter 
wears  out  faster  than  the  former,  so  keeping  up  the 
edge,  and  the  growth  of  the  tooth  makes  the  chisel 


HAm-BRUSH  

FOOT  OF  FLY.  BRUSH   OF  GLOW.  ^""^ 

WORM   LAnVA.        STOMAOH  OF  CAMEL 


(The  objects  here  described  are  more  fully  discussed,  with  others  also, 
in  "Evenings  at  the  Microscope,"  by  Philip  Henry  Gosse  [ Appleton's],  and 
in  '■'■  Nature  s  Teachings,"  already  referred  to.) 


24  BEFUKli;    THE    LU6T   x\KTb. 

last  a  lifetime.  Each  of  the  elephant's  molars  is  a 
self-dressing  millstone,  with  three  layers  of  bone, 
hard,  harder,  hardest,  which,  wearing  out  slow, 
slower,  slowest,  keep  the  ridges  ever  dressed  for 
grinding.  All  molars  are  millstones,  as  the  word  im- 
plies. 

Man  has  only  recently  invented  submarine  ce- 
ment ;  but  in  nature  it  is  as  old  as  the  terebella. 
The  respirator  used  by  certain  mechanics  to  protect 
the  mouth  from  metal  dust  was  anticipated  in  the 
strong  protection  of  the  air  tubes  of  flies.  Portable 
electric  lights,  fed  by  the  electricity  in  the  body, 
which  are  for  man  a  possible  future  invention,  are 
anticipated  in  fireflies  and  glow-worms.  And  the 
electric  weapons  of  future  warfare  are  foretokened 
in  the  torpedo  fish  and  electric  eel  which  disable 
their  game  by  electric  shocks.  Almost  ever}^  form 
of  piercing  weapon  has  been  used  for  defense  and 
for  the  hunt  in  nature.  The  so-called  sawfish  is  as 
much  a  swordfish  as  the  one  who  bears  the  latter 
name.  Both  use  their  swords  to  kill  the  game  they 
feed  on  and  for  self-defense.  Armor  is  anticipated 
in  shell  fish  and  the  tough-skinned  animals.  The 
archer  fish  has  in  its  body  and  mouth  an  air  gun  by 
which,  with  a  skill  no  man  ever  equaled,  it  shoots  a 
fly  with  a  drop  of  water  for  a  bullet.  Somewhat 
similar  in  shape,  but  with  a  long  syringe  mouth,  is 
the  bellows  fish,  which  draws  water  into  its  capa- 
cious body  to  absorb  its  minute  forms  of  life,  and 
then  expels  the  water  by  a  motion  like  that  of  a  bel- 
lows. Yet  more  interesting  is  the  squid,  which 
ought  to  be  called  the  rocket  fish,  since  its  progress 
is  caused  by  reaction  through  the  swift  expulsion, 
not  of  fire,  but  of  water.     In  capacious  bags  which 


BEFORE    THE    LOS'l"    ARTS.  2$ 

hang  like  wings  at  its  sides  it  gathers  its  "  water 
power."  The  water  is  swiftly  pressed  out  on  both 
sides  of  its  head,  and  away  it  shoots,  rear  end  first. 
So  swift  is  the  expulsion  of  the  water  that  the  head 
would  be  in  danger  were  it  not  that  on  the  sides  of 
the  head  are  little  buttons  and  on  the  water-bags 
button-holes,  by  which,  when  the  cataract  power  is 
about  to  work,  the  squid  buttons  on  his  head  and  all 
goes  well.  Here  certainly  is  an  inv^ention  that  ought 
to  be  copied  to  prevent  rockety  people  in  trying  mo- 
ments from  "  losing  their  heads."  The  angler  fish 
has  a  live  fish-pole  and  line  and  bait  on  his  upper 
lip  with  which  he  successfully  angles  for  fish.  The 
nemertes  is  a  living  elastic  fish-line  that  lies  on  the 
beach  as  if  a  dead  string  until  touched  by  the  game 
it  seeks,  which  it  "  plays"  like  a  trout- fisher  for  a 
while  and  then  devours.  As  to  nets,  besides  the 
spider's  stationary  net  that  is  rendered  more  effec- 
tive by  putting  glue  on  the  cross  threads  to  hold  the 
game,  the  argus  staifish  and  barnacle  both  use  cast 
nets  to  entangle  their  prey.  The  lace  named  in  my 
list  is  the  beautiful  lace  leaf  of  the  Orient,  and  the 
burlap  is  the  overcoat  of  the  cocoanut  tree.  Its 
warp  and  woof  are  clearly  seen. 

There  are  few,  if  any,  musical  instruments  that  are 
not  in  their  main  principle  as  old  as  nature.  The 
funeral  of  cock  robin,  had  the  story  been  written  in 
our  day,  would  have  been  carried  out  by  the  birds 
themselves,  bell  ringing,  funeral  orchestra  and  all. 
In  the  scientific  revision  of  the  story  the  partridge 
beats  the  drum  for  the  solemn  march  ;  the  bell  bird 
tolls  the  bell  ;  larks,  canaries,  and  surviving  robins 
play  the  clarionet  ;  the  golden  robin,  the  bugle  ;  the 
blue  bird,  the  flageolet  ;  the  hair  bird,  the  octave 


26  BEFORE   THE    LOST  ARTS. 

flute  ;  the  crane  and  trumpeter,  the  trumpet  ;  the 
swan,  the  trombone.  If  taboret  is  needed,  the  katy- 
did is  at  hand,  and  the  locust  with  the  violin. 

The  hollow  bones  of  birds  are,  first,  a  bone  bal- 
loon, that  is  filled  at  will  with  warm  air  from  the 
lungs  to  help  them  fly  ;  and,  second,  organ  pipes  for 
music  ;  and,  third,  hollow  pillars,  which  give  great- 
est strength  with  least  weight,  as  men  have  only 
learned  of  late.  Which  reminds  me  that  as  pillars 
and  iron  yards  for  ships  are  strengthened  by  hori- 
zontal ribs,  so  stalks  of  wheat  and  corn  and  porcu- 
pine quills  have  always  been  thus  strengthened. 
That  double  walls  with  air  space  between  are  less 
affected  by  external  heat  and  cold  is  a  new  principle 
in  human  architecture  ;  but  the  silk  worms  had  been 
so  taught  divmely  when  they  first  built  their  cocoons. 
Slated  and  tiled  roofs  are  found  in  nature,  for  in- 
stance, in  butterfly's  wings.  And  the  little  caddis 
in  pupa  state  protects  its  grave  with  grated  windows. 
The  emperor  moth's  cocoon  is  protected  by  the  re- 
verse of  the  device  that  is  found  in  crab  and  lobster 
pots  and  certain  mouse  traps,  the  cone  of  spines 
easily  entered  one  way,  but  impassable  spears  against 
return.  As  the  lobster  can  get  in  but  not  out,  the 
moth,  by  an  opposite  arrangement,  provides  that 
the  cocoon  can  in  due  time  get  out  while  nothing 
can  get  in.  The  entrances  to  birds'  nests  are  often 
like  those  of  the  Esquimaux,  which,  to  secure  their 
homes  against  polar  bears,  make  a  long  narrow  en- 
trance through  which  they  themselves  must  crawl, 
a  Thermopylae  pass  easily  defended  against  foes. 

In  the  bones  of  our  bodies  are  found  arches,  but- 
tresses, girders  ;  also  levers  of  the  three  kinds  in 
neck,  foot,  and  arm  ;   while  the  valves  of  the  heart, 


BEFORE   THE    LOST   ARTS.  2/ 

as  the  name  implies,  are  folding  doors.  The  dome, 
the  strongest  form  of  roof,  is  found  in  the  human 
skull,  which  is  built  on  the  same  architectural  prin- 
ciple  as  St.  Peter's  or  the  Capitol,  and  as  sure  to 
have  great  questions  of  Church  and  State  agitated 
beneath  it.  The  bones  of  the  skull  are  dovetailed, 
and  protected  between  and  below  by  rubber  cush 
ions  of  cartilage.  The  hair  of  our  heads,  though  not 
"  numbered"  on  the  end  of  each  one,  as  a  certain 
colored  preacher  declared  would  be  seen  to  be  the 
case  on  microscopic  examination,  is  marked  yet 
more  wonderfully  at  the  other  end.  Each  hair  is 
sheathed  like  an  officer's  sword  and  provided  with 
two  sacs  or  bottles  of  hair  oil,  the  only  kind  that 
ever  should  be  used.  In  an  average  head  of  hair 
there  are  150,000  such  sheaths. 

And  the  eye,  besides  being  an  opera  glass,  is  a 
kodak.  Cut  from  white  paper  the  figure  of  a  bird 
and  mark  an  X  upon  it  to  fix  your  eye.  Lay  it  on 
your  black  coat  or  black  dress  and  look  intently  at 
it  while  you  count  fifty,  so  making  your  eye  a  cam- 
era. Then  look  up  to  the  white  wall,  and  presently 
you  will  see  the  "negative"  of  the  bird  in  black, 
seemingly  on  the  wall,  but  really  on  your  eye,  where 
it  has  been  photographed,  and  where  it  will  remain 
as  long  as  your  portrait  would  remain  on  the  plate 
if  chemicals  were  not  used  to  "  fix"  it. 

The  telephone  of  nature  is  the  ear.  The  external 
ear  is  the  speaking  tube.  The  first  drum  corre- 
sponds to  the  vibrating  carbon.  Three  bones  con- 
stitute the  wire  which  carries  the  vibrations  to  the 
second  drum,  the  listening  tube,  where  the  brain  re- 
ceives the  message. 

Most  wonderful  of  all  the  machinery  of  the  human 


28 


BEFORE  THE  LOST  ARTS. 


head  is  the  telegraph  office  it  contains.  The  parts 
of  the  brain  whose  function  is  thought  of  course 
would  not  respond  to  electricity. 
Only  the  living  soul  can  command 
them.  But  the  sensor-motor  part, 
as  shown  in  this  living  monkey's 
brain,  experimented  upon  by 
Fritsch,  Hitzig,  and  Ferrier,  is  a 
real  telegraphic  instrument.  Pour 
an  electric  current  on  the  spot 
marked  i  and  the  hind  foot  moves 
as  in  walking.  Electrify  5  and 
there  is  a  forward  motion  of  the 
arm.  Electrify  a,  b,  c,  d,  and  the  hand  closes 
into  a  fist.  The  nerves  are  the  telegraphic  wires, 
buried    wires   of    the     latest     fashion.       The    many 


(From  Carpenter's 
Phvsiolog-y.) 


•--THE   WILL- 


Jnicllcctual  OporatioDS. -/  ] 
4      '  I  ' 


Etnutions. 
4 


Ideas. 


•— CEREBRnil«| 


Sensations.' 

4 


-4- Sensory  Ganoltk- 


'Imprff.sions. 


---Spinal  Coro- 

.  or  Sriir*THKTic  Cianolion, 


ccDtrca  of  excito-moior  rt-llexiofi. 

(From  Carpenter's  Physiology.) 


nerves  entering  the  brain,  when  pictured,  remind 
one  of  the  many  wires  entering  a  telegraph  office. 
Impressions  come  to  the  afferent  or  ingoing  nerves 
from  the  outside  world  and  are  translated  or  trans- 


BEFORE    THE    LOST   ARTS.  29 

formed  at  the  next  office,  the  sensorium,  into  "  sen- 
sations," then  reaching  sensory-motor  nerves  in  the 
brain,  they  become  successively  "  ideas,"  "  emo- 
tions," "  intellectual  operations"  (sometimes  "emo- 
tions" are  skipped),  and  then  "  the  will"  telegraphs 
the  motor  impulse,  by  the  efferent  or  outgoing  nerves, 
what  to  do.  Now,  if  the  "  impressions"  in  such  a 
case  came  from  placing  the  hand  on  a  hot  stove  while 
groping  at  night  in  a  dark  room,  and  if  it  was  nec- 
essary, before  the  hand  could  be  removed,  to  tele- 
graph from  one  of  those  offices  to  another,  and  have 
the  impressions  translated  into  "sensations,"  and 
then  into  "ideas,",  and  then  into  "emotions,"  and 
then  into  "intellectual  operations,"  before  "the 
will"  could  order  the  "  motor  impulse"  to  remove 
the  hand,  it  would  be  badly  burned.  But  one  of 
the  recent  discoveries  of  science  is  that  in  such  cases 
intellect  and  will  are  not  consulted,  but  the  deputy 
brains  in  the  spinal  cord  or  sensory  ganglia  instantly 
remove  the  hand  by  what  is  called  involuntary  reflex 
action." 

Closely  related  to  the  machinery  found  in  nature 
are  the  arabesques,  the  mathematical  forms  of  beauty 
of  which  illustrations  have  been  given  in  lenses  and 
cells,  to  which  should  be  added  the  wonderful  crys- 
tals of  the  snow  and  the  ice  flowers  and  crystallized 
hail  and  common  ice,  all  built  on  perfect  angles  of 
60°  and  120°.  When  Pascal  as  a  child  stole  away 
and  worked  out  geometric  forms  by  himself,  it  was 

■  Paul  Tyner,  in  The  Arena,  June,  1894,  and  The  New  Science 
Review.  October.  1S95,  citing  the  fact  "  that  in  post-mortem  dis- 
sections of  the  blind,  the  nerve  cells  at  the  tips  of  the  fingers  have 
been  found  identical  in  formation  with  the  gray  matter  of  the 
brain."  suggests  that  "we  think  all  over,"  the  whole  nervous 
system  being  the  organ  of  thought. 


30 


BEFORE    THE    LOST   ARTS. 


counted  an  evidence  of  superior  intelligence.     Does 
nature's  marv^elous  geometry  prove  the  lack  of  it  ? 

The  chemistry  of  nature  proves  Mind  in  nature  as 
clearly  as  that  is  proved  by  its  mathematics  and  ma- 
chines.     In  the  minute  cells  of  plants,  for  instance, 


THE   TREASURES    OF   THE    SNOW. 


feats  of  chemical  analysis  and  synthesis  are  achieved 
that  not  only  duplicate  but  excel  those  of  the  best 
human  laboratories.^  Man  has  never  yet  invented  a 
machine  for  turning  stones  to  food,  but  every  food- 

®  See  Dr.  J.  R.  Nichol's  "  Fireside  Science,"  pp.  262,  ff. 


BEFORE   THE   LO$J   ARTS.  3 1 

bearing  plant  is  just  that.  God's  laboratories  in 
nature  change  cane  sugar  to  fruit  sugar  and  grape 
sugar,  and  back  again,  and  starch  to  sugar  and  back 
again,  but  in  both  these  processes  man's  chemistry 
can  follow  God's  only  in  the  first  change.  Man  can 
compound  mineral  waters,  but  none  equal  to  those 
God  makes. 

I  have  found  nothing,  save  personal  experience, 
which  makes  the  existence  of  a  personal  God  seem 
so  real  as  my  casual  studies  of  the  divine  machinery 
of  nature,  which  confirm  the  teaching  of  the  Bible, 
that  man  is  the  image  of  God,  and  God  the  Father 
of  our  spirits,  a  Mind  like  ours,  though  infinitely 
greater.* 

It  has  been  objected  that  many  of  these  evidences 
of  adaptation  are  found  in  connection  with  weapons 
and  poisons  Avhose  purpose  is  pain,  and  that  the 
Mind  revealed  in  nature  is  indeed  intellectual  but 
not  beneficent.  Romanes,  even  while  he  credited 
this  diflficulty,  suggested  the  answer,  namely,  that 
God  seeks  perfection  in  spite  of  pain,  indeed  by  it, 
in  nature  and  human  nature  alike.'"  Drummond  has 
given  further  answer  in  showing  that  nature  reveals 
not  only  the  selfish  masculine  "  struggle  for  life," 
but  also  the  unselfish  feminine  "  struggle  for  the  life 
of  others,"  the  germ  of  self-sacrifice  in  motherhood," 
This  triumph  of  love  is  not  "  brought  to  light"  in 
nature,  but  in  revelation.  Yet  nature  is  not  wholly 
dark  in  this  matter.  It  hints  at  the  mission  of  pain 
in  relation  to  perfection  and  sacrifice. 

9  Fatherhood  is  not  a  mere  figure,  borrowed  from  man  as  apph'ed 
to  God,  but  he  is  the  divine  original  of   Fatherhood,  "  of  whom 
every  family  in  heaven  and  earth  is  named"  (Eph.  3  :  15). 
•    '<•"  Thoughts  on  Religion."  .    .' 

"  "  The  Ascent  of  Man."  ■"-    ' 


32  BEFOKEi^THE    LOST   ARTS. 

§  3.  In  the  foregoing  studies  we  have  considered 
only  the  lesser  hemisphere  of  the  argument  from  de- 
sign, known  as  teleology,  which  relates  to  the  adapta- 
tion of  means  to  ends  in  single  objects  or  small 
groups.  There  remains  time  only  to  suggest  the 
larger  hemisphere  of  eutoxology,  which  would  by 
itself  afford  sufificient  proof  of  God  in  nature  from 
the  evidence  of  order,  plan,  and  progress,  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  world.  Professor  Hicks,  in  his  "  Critique 
of  Design  Arguments,"  after  making  the  division 
just  given,  reminds  us  that  while  Socrates  relied 
chiefly  on  teleology,  Cicero  preferred  the  stronger 
argument  from  eutoxology,  pointing  those  who  said 
that  some  of  the  seeming  evidences  of  design  in  sin- 
gle objects  might  be  the  result  of  accident  (moderns 
would  say,  of  **  natural  selection")  to  the  impossi- 
bility of  so  explaining  the  orderly  plan  of  the  whole 
universe.  For  example,  he  sa3^s  :  '*  A  hog  turning 
up  the  ground  with  his  nose  may  make  something  of 
the  form  of  the  letter  A  ;  but  do  you  think  that  a 
hog  might  describe  on  the  ground  the  Andromache 
of  Eunius?"  Evolutionary  studies  have  greatly 
strengthened  eutoxology  since  the  days  of  Cicero." 

'■-  Sir  Douglass  Galton,  in  his  address  as  President  of  the  British 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  in  1895.  says  :  "  We 
have  begun  to  reahze  that  electricity  is  closely  connected  with  the 
vibrations  which  cause  heat  and  light,  and  which  seem  to  pervade 
all  space— vibrations  which  may  be  termed  the  voice  of  the  Creator 
calling  to  each  atom  and  to  each  cell  of  protoplasm  to  fall  into  its 
proper  position,  each,  as  it  were,  a  musical  note  in  the  harmonious 
symphony  which  we  call  the  universe."  Cicero's  illustration 
brought  down  to  date  would  suggest  a  scientist  entering  a  great 
publishing  house  for  the  first  time,  and,  when  none  of  its  firm  or 
force  were  in  his  range  of  vision,  discovering  type-setting  ma- 
chines and  the  huge  presses  that  print  and  fold  automatically,  and 
so  leaping  to  the  conclusion  that  "  matter  and  force"  without  mind 
produced  the  paper.  The  writer  has  an  ancient  kanoon,  a  harp  of 
a  thousand  strings,  which  was  played  in  the  lap  with  chamois-cov- 
ered  sticks.     Evolution  has  put  it  on  legs  and  pivoted  the  multi- 


BEFORE    THE   LOST  ARTS.  33 

TJie  separate  parts  of  nature  sJiozv  desigji  as  clearly  as 
an  equipped  soldier^  but  the  argument  is  greatly  re-en- 
forced when  zve  see  these  separate  parts  in  step  with  each 
other  y  marching  forward  age  after  age  tinder  the  mayii- 
fest  leadership  of  an  eternal  and  universal  and  constant 
Commander. 

Though  this  eutoxology  is  the  strongest  design 
argument,  we  believe  in  teleology  also  because  every 
adaptation  must  have  come  ultimately,  if  not  imme- 
diately, from  intelligence,  and  is  explained  far  more 
reasonably  by  the  doctrine  of  the  divine  immanence 
than  by  the  hypothesis  of  "  natural  selection."  ^^ 
Evolution,  if  true,  is  "a  process,  not  a  power." 
With  Darwinian  scholars  eutoxology  should  be 
pressed,  the  supreme  argument  that  cosmos  must 
have  an  intelligent  Cause  ;  but  to  those  who  are  not 
prejudiced  by  the  improved  Darwinian  hypothesis 
the  resemblance  of  a  thousand  machines  of  man  to 
those  of  God  proves  more  vividly  the  truth  of  Brown- 
ing's Christmas  lines  : 

"  Though  he  is  so  great  and  we  so  dim, 
We  are  made  in  his  image  to  witness  him." 

plied  drumsticks  in  connection  with  a  keyboard,  and  so  it  has  de- 
veloped, by  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  in  a  long  period  of  improve- 
ment, through  the  harpsichord  into  the  piano  ;  but  this  evolution 
has  not  been  mechanical.  So  in  the  evolution  of  the  shepherd's 
reed  into  the  pipe  organ.  The  progressive  harmony  of  the  uni- 
verse is  no  less  the  work  of  mind. 

13  Dr.  Robert  Munro,  President  of  the  Anthropological  Section  of 
the  British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  at  the  an- 
nual meeting  in  1S93,  to  which  we  have  referred,  said,  in  line  with 
the  whole  religious  trend  of  the  meeting  :  "  In  the  process  of  or- 
ganic evolution  it  would  almost  appear  as  if  nature  acted  on  teleo- 
logical  principles,  because  many  of  her  products  exhibit  structures 
which  combine  the  more  perfect  adaptation  of  means  to  ends  along 
with  the  greatest  economy  of  materials."  Romanes  to  the  last  de- 
clared that  while  Darwinism  might  do  away  with  teleology,  it  could 
not  do  away  with  eutoxology.  Matter  and  force  might  explain  sin- 
gle instances  of  design,  and  even  successive  instances  of  it,  but 
they  could  not  explain  the  order  and  progress  of  the  harmonious 
universe.     Cosmos  requires  a  Creator. 


34 


BEFORE   THE    LOST   ARTS. 


Some' of  the  very  men  who  depend  on  the  rudest 
arrow-heads  to  prove  that  man's  mind  was  at  work 
in  certain  ancient  ages,  ask  us  to  believe  that  the  in- 
finitely more  beautiful  forms  and  infinitely  more 
effective  implements  of  nature  are  the  mere  work  of 
chance,  which  they  disguise  under  the  new  name  of 
"  natural  selection." 

It  is  related  that  a  Western  skeptic  once  said,  "  If 
I  could  only  see  plan  and  order  in  nature  1  would 
beheve  in  a  God."  Just  then,  as  if  taken  at  his 
word,  he  saw  a  plant,  known  as  the  Texas  Star,  at 
his  feet.  Picking  it  up  he  counted  its  petals,  and 
found  there  were  five.  He  counted  the  stamens, 
and  found  five.  He  then  counted  the  sepals,  and 
found  five.  Desiring  to  find  in  nature  some  evi- 
dences of  an  InteUigence  superior  to  human  and 
other  than  mechanical  force,  he  determined  by  multi- 
plying to  see  how  many  chances  there  were  of  this 
flower,  having  in  it  these  three  fives,  being  brought 
into  existence  without  the  aid  of  inteUigence.  He 
found,  of  course,  the  chances  to  be  as  125  to  i. 
Then  multiplying  this  number  by  itself,  he  saw  that 
the  chances  against  there  being  two  such  flowers, 
each  having  these  exact  relations  of  numbers,  are  as 
15,625  to  I.  Looking  over  the  fields  and  on  the 
roadside,  he  saw  thousands  of  this  plant  about  him, 
evidences  of  supreme  Intelligence,  Kissing  the 
flower,  he  cried  out,  "Bloom  on,  little  flower,  j^/^ 
have  a  God  ;  /  have  a  God  ;  your  God  and  Maker 
is  my  God  and  Maker." 

He  had  been  led  to  Christ  by  a  star  no  less  divine 
than  that  which  led  the  wise  men  to  him.  In  the 
words  of  Longfellow  : 


BEFORE   THE    LOST   ARTS.  35 

"  Wondrous  truths  and  manifold  as  wondrous, 

God  has  written  in  the  stars  above  ; 
But  not  less  in  the  bright  flowerets  under  us 

Stands  the  bright  revelation  of  his  love." 
*  *  -x-  *  *  * 

"  Making  evident  our  own  creation 

In  these  stars  of  earth,  these  golden  flowers." 

A  child,  looking  at  a  picture  ot  some  idols,  asked 
her  mother  if  the  people  where  those  idols  were 
worshiped  saw  the  same  sun  and  moon  and  stars 
that  we  see.  On  her  mother's  replying,  ' '  Yes,"  she 
exclaimed,  putting  her  finger  on  the 
picture  of  a  stone  image,  '' I  should 
think  they'd  know  ' tiuould  take  a  better 
God  than  that  to  make  the  sun  and  stars/' 
We  say  the  same  to  the  materialist, 
pointing  to  his  clam-shell  god,  from 
which  he  would  have  us  believe  that  all 
thinofs,  includino^  the  brain  of  a  Shake- 

1         ,  ,  r     ^1       •  1  ANCIENT     HA- 

speare  and  the  heart  ot  LJirist,  have  ^^aian  idol. 
been  evolved  without  a  guiding  Mind. 
As  well  tell  us  that  the  Weather  Bureau,  with 
its  telegraphs,  telephones,  barometers,  thermome- 
ters, and  printing  press,  was  the  accidental  product 
of  a  gale  as  tell  us  the  great  machinery  hall  of  the 
universe  is  "  a  fortuitous  concourse  of  atoms,"  a 
mindless  development  of  mud  and  mist." 

'■*  The  "  Creed  of  Agnostic'sm"  has  been  thus  formulated  from 
the  utterances  of  its  chief  priests  : 

"I.  Matter  is  the  origin  of  all  that  exists,  without  the  intrusion 
of  any  creative  agency  ;  all  natural  and  mental  forces  are  inherent 
in  it.  Nature,  the  all-engendering  and  all-devouring,  is  its  own 
beginning  and  end,  birth  and  death.  (Biichner,  '  Kraft  und  Stoft',' 
pp.  32  and  8S.) 

"  2.  At  first  there  existed  only  a  cosmic  gas  ■  then  a  fiery  cloud  ; 
next  a  molten  spheroid,  in  which  not  alone  the  more  ignoble  forms 
of  life  .  .  ,  but  the  human  mind  itself  ...  all  our  philosophy,  all 


36  BEFORE   THE    LOST   ARTS. 

Tyndall,  the  great  apostle  of  materialism,  seems  to 
have  experienced  a  reaction  against  it,  as  did  Ro- 
manes, at  the  last,  for  in  a  posthumous  note  on  Car- 
lyle  and  Emerson  he  said  :  "  Napoleon,  gazing  at 
the  stars  and  graveling  his  savants  with  the  ques- 
tion, '  Gentlemen,  who  made  all  that  ?  '  commended 
itself  to  their  common  sympathy.  It  was  the  ille- 
gitimate science  which,  in  its  claims,  overstepped  its 
warrant,  professing  to  explain  everything,  and  to 
sweep  the  universe  clear  of  mystery,  that  was  really 
repugnant  to  Carl3de."  '" 

It  looks  as  if  the  saying  that  a  little  learning  draws 
a  man  from  God  and  fuller  study  brings  him  back 
again  were  to  have  a  new  illustration  in  the  case  of 
natural  science.  The  discovery  of  "  secondary 
causes"  no  doubt  made  many  think  God  had  been 
banished  from  his  world  ;  but  now  science  finds  need 
of  a  First  Cause  to  account  for  the  multitudinous 
and  immeasurable  Force  that  drives  the  vast  ma- 
chinery of  the    universe.     It    is    remembered    that 

our  poetry,  and  all  our  art  ...  all  are  supposed  to  have  been 
latent  and  potential.  (Tyndall,  '  Scientific  Use  of  the  Imagina- 
tion.') 

"3.  Thereupon  followed  a  long  cooling  process.  The  vapors 
were  condensed  ;  the  crust  of  the  earth,  its  seas,  lakes,  and  rivers, 
and  life  itself  were  formed.  The  difference  between  a  living  and 
a  non  living  body  is  a  difference  of  degree,  not  of  kind.  (Fiske, 
'  Cosmic  Philosophy,'  p.  422.)  All  natural  bodies  with  which  we 
are  acquainted  are  equally  living.  (Haeckel,  '  Natiirl.  Schopfungs- 
gesch  '  by  Dr.  Ernst,  6  edit.) 

"  4.  Light  shines  upon  the  water,  and  it  is  salted.  Light  shines 
upon  the  salted. sea  and  it  hves.  (Oken,  '  Elem.  Physiol.')  Thus 
was  produced  the  sea-mucus  (or  protoplasm),  which  is  the  life  stuff 
or  physical  basis  of  the  earliest  and  simplest  organisms.  (Sec.  905, 
Ray  Society's  Edit.  *  Oken's  Physiol.') 

*'  5.  All  the  forms  of  vegetable  and  animal  life,  including  man, 
have  been  successively  and  gradually  developed  from  the  earliest 
and  simplest  organisms  (Spencer,  '  Social  Statistics,'  p.  79),  and,  in 
particular,  man  himself  is,  without  doubt,  a  lineal  descendant  of 
the  anthropoid  apes.'*     (Haeckel,  /.  c.) 

*^  Quoted,  Christia7i  Advocate,  January  8,  1S94. 


BEFORE   THE    LOST   ARTS. 


37 


Newton  did  not,  like  materialists,  count  gravitation 
a  god,  but  only  God's  mode  of  action.  It  is  seen 
that  what  man's  will  torce  does  in  his  own  body  and 
environment  for  himself  or  for  others  in  interposing 
and  overruling  laws  of  nature  is  like  what  is  done 
on  a  larger  scale  in  the  world,  which  is  not  a  ma- 
chine of   per- 


petual, 

me- 

chanical 

mo- 

tion,    but   the 

regular 

yet 

variable 

ex- 

pr essi 

o  n  of 

thought 

and 

will. 

A    fountain 

cannot 

rise 

higher    1 

than 

^fH^i;!^^.- 


its source,  in- 
telligence ex- 
ists. Nothing 
less  than  In- 
tel 1  i  g  e  n  c  e 
could  have 
produced  it. 

Professor  Joseph  Henry,  of  the  Smithsonian  Insti- 
tution, who,  before  he  passed  from  the  study  of  na- 
ture to  the  presence  of  nature's  God,  was  generally 
recognized  as  hardly  second  to  any  man  of  this  age 
in  his  broad  and  scholarly  grasp  of  all  sciences,  in 
one  of  his  latest  letters  declared  to  a  friend  his 
scientific  satisfaction  in  the  old  argument  from 
design,  as  proving  the  existence  of  a  spiritual 
and    personal    God    in    and    above    and    before   the 


3<^  BEFORE   THE    LOST    ARTS. 

natural    world.      The   pith  of   his  ari^umcnt  is  as  fol- 
lows : 

*"  In  accordance  with  this  scientific  view,  on  what 
evidence  docs  the  existence  of  a  Creator  rest  ? 
First,  it  is  one  of  the  truths  best  estabHshed  b}"  ex- 
perience in  my  own  mind,  that  1  have  a  thinking, 
willing  principle  within  me  capable  of  intellectual 
activity  and  of  moral  feeling.  Second,  it  is  equally 
clear  to  me  that  you  have  a  similar  spiritual  princi- 
ple withm  yourself,  since  when  I  ask  you  an  intelli- 
gent question  you  give  me  an  intellectual  answer. 
Third,  when  I  examine  the  operations  of  nature,  I 
find  everywhere  through  them  evidences  of  intel- 
lectual arrangements,  of  contrivances  to  reach  defi- 
nite ends,  precisely  as  1  find  in  the  operations  of 
man  ;  and  hence  I  infer  that  these  two  classes  of 
operations  are  results  of  similar  intelligence."  '" 

We  may  fitly  add  here  the  recent  utterance  of  the 
great  inventor,  Edison,'"  who  has  been  a  close  student 

'6  Memorial  of  Joseph  Henry,  published  by  Congress,  pp.  24,  25. 

"  Pittsburgh  Christian  Advocate,  July  22,  1893.  It  is  appropri- 
ate to  note,  in  this  connection,  that  the  cablegram  sent  m  1896  from 
New  York  City  round  the  world,  by  the  power  of  Niagara  dynamos, 
in  sixty  minutes,  m  the  same  devout  spirit  that  was  shown  in  the 
first  telegraphic  message  ("  What  hath  God  wrought?"),  uttered 
this  message  in  all  continents  :  "  God  created,  nature  treasures, 
and  science  utilizes  electrical  power  for  the  grandeur  of  nations 
and  the  peace  of  the  world." 


This  chapter  may  seem  to  be  unrelated  to  the  author's  ethical 
specialties,  but,  in  fact,  it  presents  their  foundations.  Ethical 
rules  can  have  710  adequate  authority  to  one  who  does  not  be- 
lieve, first  of  all,  that  the  ujiiverse  is  governed  ethically. 
Agnostic  ethical  culture,  even  in  its  best  forms,  Confucianism  and 
Buddhism,  has  failed  to  convert  countries,  or  even  personal  con- 
duct and  character  for  lack  of  authority.  Utilitarian  morality,  so 
called,  is  signally  lacking  in  real  utility.  Only  morality  with  God 
behind  it  is  adequate  for  worlds  and  hearts  with  sin  within  them. 


BEFORE    THE    LOST    ARTS.  39 

of  the  mighty  eiieigies  of  the  universe,  and  who  thus 
expresses  himself  concerning-  the  existence  of  a  per- 
sonal Creator  :  "  I  tell  you  that  no  person  can  be 
brought  into  close  contact  with  the  mysteries  of  na- 
ture, or  make  a  study  of  chemistry,  without  being 
convinced  that  behind  it  all  there  is  supreme  Intelli- 
gence. I  am  convinced  of  that,  and  I  think  that  I 
could,  perhaps  1  may  some  time,  demonstrate  the 
existence  of  such  Intelligence  through  the  operation 
of  these  mysterious  laws  with  the  certainty  of  a 
demonstration  in  mathematics." 

The  existence  of  a  personal  Intelligence  in  and 
back  of  the  visible  world  Jias  been  mathematically 
demonstrated  by  the  evidences  of  design,  order,  and 
progress  in  nature. 

Science  is  taking  up  the  words  of  Dante  : 

"  Love  draws  the  sun  and  all  the  other  stars." 

Science  is  also  confessing  with  Lowell  : 

"  Behind  the  dim  unknown 
Standeth  God  within  the  shadow, 
Keeping  watch  above  his  own." 


f  "■ 

.Iff-: 


WhfP^-^' 


II. 

CHRIST  THE   CREATOR. 

§  4.  Science  proves  Mind  in  nature.  Scripture 
proclaims  tliat  Mind  to  be  the  Mind  of  Christ.  '*  In 
the  beginning  was  the  Word.  .  .  .  The  world  was 
made  by  him,  and  the  world  knew  him  not."  '     *'  Nor 

^  John  1:1.  All  through  Job,  Proverbs,  and  Ecclesiastes  per- 
sonified Wisdom  is  recognized  as  the  God  of  nature.  Some  would 
translate  logos  in  John  i  :  i  reason  ;  but  Rev.  Dr.  C.  H.  Parkhurst 
shows  that  its  application  to  Christ  would  remain.  "  In  the  be- 
ginning was  the  reason  for  the  universe,  and  the  reason  for  the 
universe  was  with  God  and  was  God  ;  it  was  himself  ;  but  that 
reason  was  made  flesh."  Here  it  is  appropriate  to  quote  an  utter- 
ance of  Professor  Max  Miiller,  in  the  Nineteenth  Centuj'y,  Decem- 
ber, 1894  :  "  I  cannot  help  seeing  order,  law,  reason  or  logos  in 
the  world,  and  I  cannot  account  for  it  by  merely  ex  post  qxq\\\s, 
call  them  what  ^^-ou  like— survival  of  the  fittest,  natural  selection, 
or  anything  else.  Anjdiow.  this  gnosis  is  to  me  irresistible,  and  I 
dare  not  therefore  enter  the  camp  of  the  agnostics  under  false 
colors.  If  agnosticism  excludes  a  recognition  of  an  eternal  reason 
pervading  the  natural  and  the  moral  world,  if  to  postulate  a  ra- 
tional cause  for  a  rational  universe  is  called  gnosticism,  then  I  am 
a  gnostic,  and  a  humble  follower  of  the  greatest  thinkers  of  our 
race  from  Plato  and  the  author  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  to  Kant  and 
Hegel."  And  Principal  A.  W.  Fairbairn  gives  further  emphasis 
to  the  profound  relation  between  reason  in  us  and  reason  in  nature 
in  the  following  words  from  his  Chautauqua  lecture  on  "Tran- 
scendentalism in  the  Interpretation  of  Nature"  (Chautauqua  Her- 
ald, August  20,  1895)  :  "  There  is  nothing  more  wonderful  in  this 
century  than  the  rediscovery  of  lost  tongues.  Before  1820  no  man 
knew  anything  of  Egyptian  hieroglyphics  save  that  they  were  very 
remarkable  figures,  with  very  remarkable  pictures.  .  .  .  These 
great  arrow-headed,  hieroglyphic  characters  expressed  real  thought, 
and  their  intelligibility  to  intellect  was  due  to  their  creation  by  in- 
telligence. The  principle  that  explains  their  interpretation  ex- 
plains the  interpretation  of  the  world  The  world  is  reasonable  to 
man  because  man  is  reason  ;  the  very  laws,  the  very  qualities,  and 
the  very  ideas  that  the  reasonable  world  expresses  dwell  in  the 
reason  that  interprets  it. ' ' 


42  BEFORE   THE    LOST  ARTS. 

does  it  3xt  know  Christ  as  its  Creator.  Although 
John  declares  four  times  that  the  world  was  made 
by  him  who  afterward  "  became  flesh  and  dwelt 
among  us  ;"  '  and  although  the  Book  of  Hebrews 
twice  declares  the  same  ;  and  although  Paul,  in 
Colossians,  twice  declares  that  "in  him  were  all 
things  created,"  and  that  by  him  all  creation  is  held 
together,  and  that  with  him  all  creation  is  filled,'  yet 
how  seldom  does  any  one  reply  to  a  child's  questions 
about  the  great  world,  "  Jesus  made  it  !"  Satan,  in 
the  great  temptation,  recognized  Christ  as  Lord  of 
nature,  which  is  more  than  some  Christians  have 
done.  He  is  called  Redeemer  often,  but  how  sel- 
dom Creator  !  This  is  due,  in  part,  to  the  Apostles' 
Creed,  so  called,  which  needs  to  be  conformed  to 
the  above  teachings  of  the  apostles  by  changing  it  to 
read:  "I  believe  m  God  the  Father,  Almighty, 
Maker  of  Heaven  and  Earth  througJi  Jesus  Christ  his 
only  Son  our  Lord." 


2  John  I  :  3,  lo,  14.  Rev.  4:11.  All  through  these  studies  we 
aim  to  use  the  Revised  Version  for  Bible  quotations  except  where 
otherwise  stated,  with  M.  for  passages  introduced  from  its  mar- 
gin. Why  so  many  Christians  should  prefer  the  less  accurate 
rather  than  the  more  accurate  translation  of  God's  thought,  tradi- 
tion rather  than  truth,  it  is  hard  to  understand.  In  the  points  in 
which  the  American  revisers  put  on  record  a  different  translation 
from  what  was  chosen  by  the  British  revisers,  we  follow  the  former, 
chiefly  because  it  is  conceded  that  the}^  were  the  more  literal  the 
latter  the  more  conservative.  Those  who  use  the  revision  (as  it  is 
now  chiefly  used)  as  a  commentary  only,  will  surely  prefer  to  have 
the  more  correct  and  critical  revision  in  such  citations  as  are  made 
in  a  work  like  this.  Fords,  Howard  &  Hulbert,  New  York,  have 
published  the  New  Testament  and  Psalms  in  separate  volumes 
with  American  preferences  substituted  in  the  text.  Harper's 
Franklin  Square  edition  of  the  revision  has  put  American  prefer- 
ences, except  those  of  general  application,  into  footnotes,  as  more 
convenient  than  the  official  consignment  of  them  to  the  appendix. 

^  Heb.  I  :  2,  10-12.  Col.  i  :  16,  17.  Other  passages  on  creation  • 
Gen.  I  :  2.  Job  38,  39,  Ps.  33  :  6-9.  Isa.  40  :  12-31.  Jer.  10  ; 
10-16.     Eccles.  12  •  I. 


CHRIST   THE   CREATOR.  43 

How  the  Creatorship  of  Christ  liarmonizes  the 
great  facts  of  nature  and  Scripture  !  ' 

If  the  Author  of  nature  and  human  nature  be  a 
Mind,  like  us  but  greater,  then  we  are  assured  by 
our  own  instincts  as  fathers  and  friends  that  he  could 
not  leave  us  unvisited  and  unnistructed.  Incarna- 
tion and  inspiration  are  logical  corollaries  of  crea- 
tion. 

In  the  words  of  Browning  : 

"  Would  I  fain  in  my  impotent  yearning  do  all  for  this  man, 
And  doubt  he  alone  shall  not  help  him  who  yet  alone  can  ?" 

If  there  be  a  God,  miracles  are  as  much  to  be  ex- 
pected from  him  as  great  deeds  fiom  great  men. 
And  if  Christ  be  the  Author  of  nature,  what  wonder 
that  life  and   death   obeyed  his  word  !''     Perfection 

^  Mr.  Gladstone's  annotated  edition  of  Butler's  "Analogy" 
(Macmillan  &  Co.,  $7.00)  appears  opportunely  just  when  many  sci- 
entists have  become  theists,  but  not  yet  Christians.  They  see 
"  difficulties"  not  in  sectarian  dogmas  only,  but  in  the  essentials  of 
Christianity  itself.  To  which  Butler  replies  that  nature  presents 
"  difficulties"  analogous  to  those  of  Scripture,  and  as  one  believes 
in  the  God  of  nature,  despite  "  difficulties"  suggested  by  some  of 
his  modes  of  procedure,  because  there  are  greater  "  difficulties"  in 
denying  an  intelligent  authorship  of  the  world,  so  he  should  not 
deny  that  the  same  authorship  lies  back  of  the  written  and  living 
Word  because  the  same  modes  of  procedure  (e.g. ,  perfection  sought 
even  at  the  cost  of  pain)  are  found  m  the  Word  as  in  the  world, 
there  being  greater  "  difficulties"  in  denying  than  in  accepting  the 
divine  origin  whether  of  the  Word  or  of  the  M'orld. 

^  Oh,  it  is  an  interesting  thought  to  me  to  know  that  Christ  had 
something  to  do  with  the  creation.  I  see  now  why  it  was  so  easy 
for  him  to  change  water  into  wine  ;  he  first  created  the  water.^  I 
see  now  why  it  was  so  easy  for  him  to  cure  the  maniac  ;  he  first 
created  the  intellect.  I  see  now  why  it  was  so  easy  for  him  to 
hush  the  tempest  ;  he  sank  Gennesaret.  I  see  now  why  it  was  so 
easy  for  him  to  swing  fish  into  vSimon's  net  ;  he  made  the  fish.  I 
see  now  why  it  was  so  easy  for  him  to  give  sight  to  the  blind  ;  he 
created  the  optic  nerve.  I  see  now  why  it  was  so  easy  for  him  to 
raise  Lazarus  from  the  dead  !  He  created  the  body  of  Lazarus 
and  the  rock  that  shut  him  in.  Some  suppose  that  Christ  came  a 
stranger  to  Bethlehem.  Oh,  no.  He  created  the  shepherds,  and 
the  flocks  they  watched,  and  the  hills  on  which  they  pastured,  and 
the  heavens  that  overarched  their  heads,  and  the  angels  that 
chanted  the  chorus  on  that  Christmas  niglit. 


44  BEFORE   THE    LOST  ARTS. 

will  lead  him  as  the  Author  of  nature  to  do  things 
usually  in  the  same  way  because  always  in  the  best 
way,  but  will  not  prevent  unusual  deeds  for  unusual 
ends.  "  Natural"  and  "  supernatural"  should  mean 
only  the  usual  and  unusual  ways  of  God.  It  is  strict- 
ly atheism  to  kave  God  out  of  any  part  of  his  world, 
whether  by  calling  it  "  natural"  or  "  secular." 

The  doctrine  that  Christ  is  the  Creator  harmonizes 
with  the  two  facts  that  in  nature  and  in  Christ  alike 
we  find  Mind  like  ours  but  greater. 

The  doctrine  that  man  is  "  the  image  of  God"  also 
derives  profound  significance  from  the  two  facts  that 
the  Spirit  in  nature  resembles,  though  it  exceeds 
man's,  while  the  "  spiritual  body'  with  which  Christ 
returned  to  Heaven  was  a  glorified  human  form — was 
it  not  the  same  spiritual  "  image'  after  the  pattern 
of  which  man  was  originally  made,  the  human  ele- 
ments being  only  those  which  Christ  had  lost,  as  we 
shall  lose  them  also  in  the  transfiguration  which  we 
call  resurrection.^ 

Reason  and  Science,  like  Moses  and  Elijah  on 
Hermon,  stand  on  either  side  of  Christ,  but  only  as 
ministering  spirits  to  confirm  and  increase  his  glory, 
and  the  voice  of  God  comes  to  us  in  our  perplexity, 

^  The  old  anthropomorphic  God  of  Abraham  and  Moses,  of  St. 
Bernard  and  St.  Louis,  of  Calvin  and  Bossuet.  was  a  very  real, 
intelligible,  active,  moral  ruler  of  this  earth,  with  most  of  the  at- 
tributes, feelings,  and  passions  of  man  idealized.  All  this  shocks 
the  moralist  and  the  philosopher  of  today.  .  .  .  Now,  the  relig- 
ion of  humanity  is  a  frank  return  upon  the  healthy,  instructive, 
anthropomorphic  view  of  religion.  No  object  of  religion  caji  be  a 
source  of  moral  power  over  vian  U7iless  it  be  anthropomorphic 
in  the  fullest  setise — that  is,  sympathetic,  akin  to  man.  familiar 
to  man. — Frederick  Harriso?t,  in  Fortiiightly  Review. 

The  incarnation  of  God  is  the  truth  embodied  in  all  the  scriptural 
anthropomorphisms. — Delitzsch. 

The  incarnation  expresses  the  humanity  of  God  and  the  divinity 
of  man. — Principal  A.   IV.  Fair b air ti. 


CHRIST   THE   CREATOR.  45 

"  Hear  ye  him."  There  can  be  no  contradiction  in 
these  varied  revelations  of  God,  and  no  cause  for 
our  hearts  to  be  cast  down  with  fear.  "  Arise,  and 
be  not  afraid." 

On  Mount  Hermon,  at  the  coronation  of  Christ — 
our  point  of  view  in  all  these  studies — we  behold  not 
only  his,  but  also  the  Transfiguration  of  nature— 
the  '  *  bright  cloud, ' '  the  transfigured  flesh,  the  gleam- 
ing snow,  the  very  rocks,  all  aglow  with  his  presence 
who  called  himself  "  the  light  of  the  world."  Since 
Christ  made  and  rules  and  fills  the  world,  none  of  it 
can  be  "  secular."  It  is  all"  holy  ground."  All 
nature,  like  the  burning  bush,  is  ablaze  with  Christ. 
It  was  perhaps  because  he  was  King  of  nature  that 
he  chose  to  have  his  coronation,  not  m  temple  courts, 
like  other  kings,  but  rather  on  "  the  high  mountain 
apart,"  that  towers  like  a  snow  crowned  palace 
above  the  hills  of  Palestine. 

Here  it  is  appropriate  to  quote  the  words  of  Fichte  : 

"  The  universe  now  appears  to  my  eye  in  a  trans- 
figured form.  The  dead,  clogging  mass,  which  be- 
fore only  stopped  up  space,  has  vanished,  and  in  its 
place  flows  and  billows  and  roars  the  eternal  stream 
of  life  and  power  and  deed,  of  original  life,  of  thy 
life.  Infinite  One  ;  for  all  life  is  thy  life,  and  only  the 
religious  eye  presses  into  the  realm  of  true  beauty." 

Creation  itself  is  but  a  large  incarnation  of  him 
who  said,  "  I  am  the  life."  To  an  increasing  num- 
ber of  scientists  nature  is  seen  and  felt  to  be  filled  and 
thrilled  in  every  part  with  Divine  energies.  Gravita- 
tion is  but  another  name  for  God,  and  "  life"  for  love. 

In  the  words  of  another  : ' 

1  Edith  M.  Thomas,  "  Nature's  Apocalypse,"  in  The  Congrega- 
iionalist. 


4^  BEFORE   THE    LOST   ARTS. 

"  All  around  him  Patmos  lies, 
Who  hath  Spirit-gifted  eyes, 
Who  his  happy  sight  can  suit 
To  the  great  and  the  minute. 
Doubt  not  but  he  holds  in  view 
A  new  earth  and  heaven  new  ; 
Doubt  not  but  his  ear  doth  catch 
Strams  nor  voice  nor  reed  can  match." 

To  such  an  ear  came  the  sound  of  creation's  an- 
tiphony  in  the  fifth  chapter  of  Revelation,  where 
every  creature  of  heaven  sings  :  "  Worthy  is  the 
Lamb  that  hath  been  slain  to  receive  the  power,  and 
riches,  and  wisdom,  and  might,  and  honor,  and 
glory,  and  blessing.  And  every  created  thing  which 
is  in  heaven,  and  on  the  earth,  and  under  the  earth, 
and  on  the  sea,  and  all  that  are  in  them  heard  1  say- 
ing (the  heavenly  chorus  continuing  and  all  creation 
below  joining  m  the  response),  *  Unto  him  that  sit- 
teth  on  the  throne,  and  unto  the  Lamb  be  the  bless- 
ing, and  the  honor,  and  the  glory,  and  the  dominion 
for  ever  and  ever.'  " 

Christ  is  described  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Colossians, 
which  interprets  the  Divine  Heart  of  nature  and 
presents  Christ  as  King  of  the  cosmos,  as  in  Ephe- 
sians  he  is  head  of  the  Church,  as  '  *  the  image  of  the 
invisible  God,"  "  the  Son  of  his  love,"  "  the  first- 
born of  all  creation  ;  for  in  him  were  all  thins^s  ere- 
ated  in  the  heavens  and  upon  the  earth,  things  visi- 
ble and  things  invisible,  whether  thrones,  or  domin- 
ions, or  principalities,  or  powers  ;  all  thmgs  have 
been  created  through  him  and  unto  him  ;  and  he  is 
before  all  thin2:s  and  in  him  all  thinsfs  hold  to«:ether. " 
As  Professor  W.  W.  White  clearly  shows,  the  error 
which  the  Epistle  to  the  Colossians  was  written  to 
refute  was  a  mixture  of  Judaism  and  Oriental  theoso- 


CHRIST    THE    CREATOR.  47 

phy.  God  was  pictured  as  embodied  Goodness,  but 
far  above  his  creation,  which  they  represented  as 
embodied  Evil  far  below.  Between  the  two  was  the 
pleroma  or  filling,  or  "  fullness,"  consisting  first  on 
the  upper  side,  next  to  God,  of  higher  angels,  includ- 
ing Christ,  whom  they  counted  angelic  but  not  di- 
vine ;  then  lesser  angels,  graded  down  to  the  low- 
est, which  last  were  tainted  enough  to  touch  the 
natural  world.  Certain  men  claimed  a  monopoly  of 
this  "  wisdom"  and  "  knowledge,"  and  the  right  to 
initiate  others  mto  "  mystery  ;"  but  the  common 
people  were  excluded  from 
the  "perfection"  such  "  wis- 
dom" brought.  Paul  declares 
that      Christ      is     "wisdom,"     <    (  higher  angels, 

4.1  1     J  ,,    ..  i        ^-  ».        o      ;    INCLUDING    CHRIST. 

knowledge,        perfection  ;        2  -j  ^^^^^^  ^^^^^^ 
his  Gospel    a  revealed   "  mys-     -^    \  lowest  angels. 

tery,"  open  fully  to  the  lowli-  - 

est  ;  himself  the  pleroma,   the  I^l^IlJ 

"fullness   of  him  that    fiUeth 

all  in  all,"  connecting  the  world  with  the  Father. 

"  He  that  ascended  is  the  same  also  that  descend- 
ed that  he  might  fill  all  things."  He  who  loved  and 
interpreted  and  commanded  nature  in  his  miracles 
on  and  in  and  around  the  sea  of  Galilee  is  the  same 
who  created  and  now  controls  the  forces  of  sea  and 
sky,  of  land  and  life.  And  so-called  "  natural  laws," 
including  the  laws  of  health,  of  temperance,  and  of 
purity  are  therefore  but  parts  of  his  supreme  law,  as 
binding  upon  us  as  those  which  he  wrote  upon  the 
rocks  at  Sinai.         

§5.   "In    the    beginning    was    the    Word" '—and 

^  John  I  :  I. 


48  BEFORE   THE   LOST   ARTS. 

''before.''''  Having  traced  the  life  of  Christ  from 
Bethlehem  back  to  creation,  we  are  prepared  to  go 
further  back  to  that  measureless  final  period  of  his 
life  "  before  the  world  was.'' 

Let  Hermon  and  the  earth  itself  disappear,  leaving 
before  our  eyes  only  the  transfigured  Christ  and 
"  the  bright  cloud"  "  which  is  ever  the  ermine  robe 
ot  the  Divine  Father."  Thus  \A  imagination  we  be- 
hold the  glory  and  fellowship  to  which  Christ  was 
looking  back  on  the  night  before  the  crucifixion, 
when,  gazing  skyward,  he  prayed  :  '*  Now,  O  Fa- 
ther, glorify  thou  me  with  thine  own  self  with  the 
glory  which  I  had  with  thee  before  the  world  was." 
**  Thou  lovedst  me  before  the  foundation  ot  the 
world."  '"  Thus  we  are  carried  back  to  the  time, 
nay  to  the  eternity,  when  Christ  was  "  the  only  be- 
gotten Son  which  is  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father."  ^^ 
We  are  listening  to  that  same  voice  of  the  Father, 
which  said  at  the  transfiguration,  "  This  is  my  be- 
loved Son  in  w^hom  I  am  well  pleased,"  '*  as  his 
words  come  to  us  through  David  and  the  New  Tes- 
tament from  the  eternal  heavens  where  they  were 
spoken  to  Christ  and  about  him  before  the  world 
was  made. 

"  Thou  art  my  Son  ;  this  day  have  I  begotten 
thee  ;"  '"  and  again,  "  I  will  be  his  Father  and  he  shall 
be  my  Son  ;  '"  and  he  shall  say  unto  me.  Thou  art 
my  Father  ;"  ''  and  when  he  bringeth  the  Firstborn 

9  John  17:5.  '0  Matt.  17:5. 

"  Ex.  13  :  21  ;  40  :  35-38.     Ps.  80  :  i. 

12  John  17  :  5,  24.  "^  John  i  :  18. 

14  Matt.  17:5.  '5  Ps.  2  :  7.     Heb.  i  :  5. 

'6  2  Sam,  7  :  14.  Heb.  2  :  5.  In  this  and  other  passages,  prophe- 
cies of  Israel  or  of  Israel's  kings  are  shown  to  have  also  a  relation 
to  Christ. 

1^  Ps.  89  :  26,  27.  All  the  Targums  apply  this  to  the  Messiah.— 
Hebrew  Christian. 


w 

■ ■—■•■' — ■ — ; 

: 

1        A.^^ 

^^^^^^^^K^ 

safe  no  one,  sabc  |csus  onlg." 
*  Pe  tons  foimi)  nlone," 


50  BEFORE   THE   LOST   ARTS. 

into  the  world,  he  saith,  "  Let  all  the  angels  of  God 
worship  him."  '^  Of  the  Son  he  saith,  "  Thy  throne, 
O  God,  is  for  ever  and  ever  ;  a  scepter  of  equity  is 
the  scepter  of  thy  kingdom.  Thou  hast  loved  right- 
eousness and  hated  wickedness  ;  therefore  God,  thy 
God,  hath  anointed  thee  with  the  oil  ol  gladness 
above  thy  fellows.**  " 

"  The  Lord,"  David  informs  us,  "  said  unto  my 
Lord,  Sit  thou  at  my  right  hand  till  I  make  thine 
enemies  thy  footstool,"'"  The  psalmist  also  echoes 
down  the  ages  to  us  that  other  saying  of  the  Father 
to  the  Son  :  "  I  also  will  make  him  my  Firstborn, 
the  highest  of  the  kings  of  the  earth." 

As  in  the  last  two  passages,  so  in  others, ""'  that  far- 
off  eternity  is  thrown  suddenly  into  relation  to  things 
of  time  (which  is  all  an  "  eternal  now"  to  God),  es- 
pecially into  relation  with  creation,"  as  in  that  pas- 
sage where  one  called   Wisdom  "  by  Solomon  does 

1^  Ps.  97  :  7.     Heb.  i  ;  6. 

^9  Ps  45  :  6,  7.     Heb.  i  :  8,  9. 

^^  Ps.  no  :  I.     Heb.  i  :  13.     Acts.  2  :  34-36.     Matt.  22  ;  41-46. 

2'  Ps.  2  :  7,  8. 

22  Heb,  I  :  10-12.     Ps.  102  :  25-27.     John  i  :  1-3.     Col.  i  :  16,  17. 

23  Prov.  8  :  22-30  In  the  city  of  Constantinople  there  is  a  ven- 
erable building,  now  used  as  a  Mohammedan  place  of  devotion, 
but  originally  erected  for  a  Christian  church.  It  was  so  beautiful 
that,  when  proud  Justinian  had  finished  it,  he  exclaimed  :  "  I  have 
eclipsed  thee,  O  Solomon  !"  This  is  called  the  mosque  of  St.  So- 
phia ;  and,  singularly  enough,  it  thus  retains  its  old  name.  "  So- 
phia" is  a  word  meaning  wisdom  ;  so  St.  Sophia  signifies  Holy 
Wisdom  ;  hence  we  have  it  as  a  historic  fact  that  the  primitive  be- 
lievers sometimes  worshiped  the  Lord  Jesus  under  such  an  Old 
Testament  name.  The  apocryphal  Book  of  Wisdom,  written  just 
before  Christ,  says  that  Wisdom  in  the  beginning  sat  in  God's 
throne,  and  made  the  world.  It  is  probable  that  in  every  case  this 
is  a  vivid  and  picturesque  presentation  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
bringing  the  messages  of  redemption  to  men  from  heaven.  2.  In 
the  New  Testament,  our  Lord  is  several  times  called  Wisdom. 
Once  (Matt.  11  :  19)  he  claims  it  openly  ;  once  (Luke  11  149)  he 
takes  it  colloquially,  as  if  everybody  knew  it  belonged  to  him  ; 
once  (i  Cor.  i  :  24)  the  apostle  ascribes  it  to  him.  3.  Again  the 
first  chapter  of  John's  gospel  contains  a  long  disquisition  concern- 


CHRIST  THE   CREATOR.  5  I 

just  what  is  less  poetically  ascribed   by  John  to  the 
Word  : 

*'  The   Lord   possessed   me  in  the  beginning  of  his 
way, 

Before  his  works  of  old. 

I  was  set  up  from  everlasting,  from  the  beginning, 

Or  ever  the  earth  was. 

When  there  were  no  depths,  1  was  brought  forth  ; 

When  there   were  no  fountains   abounding   with 
water. 

Before  the  mountains  were  settled. 

Before  the  hills  was  I  brought  forth  : 

While  as  yet  he  had  not  made  the  earth,  nor  the 
fields, 

Nor  the  beginning  of  the  dust  of  the  world. 

When  he  established  the  heavens,  I  was  there  : 

When  he  set  a  circle  upon  the  face  of  the  deep  : 

When  he  made  firm  the  skies  above  : 

When  the  fountains  of  the  deep  became  strong  : 

When  he  gave  to  the  sea  its  bound, 

That  the   waters  should  not  transgress  his  com- 
mandment : 

When  he  marked  out  the  foundations  of  the  earth  : 

Then  I  was  by  him,  as  a  master  workman  : 

And  1  was  daily  his  delight. 

Rejoicing  always  before  him.'* 

In  these   words  Solomon  has  answered   his  own 
question  of  another  chapter  : 

"  Who  hath  ascended  up  into  heaven,  and  descend- 
ed? 

ing  a  strange  person  called  the  "  The  Word  ;"  and  what  Logos 
means  is  very  like  what  Sophia  means  ;  they  both  seem  to  signify 
God  coming  down  from  heaven  so  as  to  hold  communication  with 
men  by  reason  and  speech.— y?t-7/.  Dr.  C.  S.  Robinson,  in  Sunday- 
School  Times.  Delitzsch  remarks,  "  The  utterances  of  Wisdom 
come  remarkably  into  contact  with  those  of  Jesus." 


52  BEFORE   THE   LOST   ARTS. 

Who  hath  gathered  the  wind  in  his  fists  ? 

Who  hath  bound  the  waters  in  his  garment  ? 

Who  hath  estabhshed  all  the  ends  of  the  earth  ? 

What  is  his  name,  and  what  is  his  Son's  name,  if 
thou  knowest  ?" 

The  Jewish  Zohar  answers,  "The  Christ"  (Fol. 
119,  col.  473). 

Micah  says  of  him  who  was  to  be  born  in  Bethle- 
hem that  **  His  goings  forth  are  from  of  old,  from 
everlasting."  " 

These  pictures  of  Christ  as  our  Heavenly  Creator 
before  he  became  our  human  Redeemer  are  of  more 
than  theological  value.  Without  them  we  cannot 
even  appreciate  the  great  humane  lesson  of  his  incar- 
nation as  an  example  of  condescension.  If  we  begin 
our  studies  of  his  life  at  the  manger  cradle  of  pov- 
erty and  see  his  mother  offering  for  her  cleansing 
two  doves— such  a  sacrifice  as  was  brought  only  by 
the  poorest  of  the  people— and  then  behold  her 
going  to  her  humble  home  at  Nazareth  to  rear  the 
child  for  a  mechanic,  we  shall  not  discover  any  great 
condescension,  any  sacrifice  of  refined  feeling  in  his 
subsequent  life  among  the  lowly. ^' 

But  if  we  behold  him  first  in  the  Heavenly  Palace 
of  God,  surrounded  by  worshiping  angels,  whence 
**  he  that  descended"  '"  "  came  down,"  ''  as  he  was 
wont  to  say,  then  we  shall  be  able  to  appreciate  the 
condescension  foretold  by  Isaiah  :  **  Unto  us  a  child 
is  born,  the  Father  of  eternity,  the  Mighty  God  ;"  '' 


^-i  Micah  5:2. 

25  Tradition  takes  the  traveler  to  a  cave  in  Bethlehem  as  the 
stable  in  which  Christ  was  born,  and  to  another  cave  in  Nazareth 
as  his  boyhood's  home.  If  these  caves  are  not  the  true  places,  the 
latter  were  surely  no  less  lowly. 

26  Eph.  4  :  10.  27  John  6  :  38.  28  jga.  9:6.' 


CHRIST   THE   CREATOR.  53 

and  the  condescension  pictured  in  Paul's  laddcr 
from  Heaven  down  to  the  cross  :  '*  Have  this  mind 
in  you,  which  was  also  in  Christ  Jesus  :  who  exist- 
ing in  the  form  of  God,  counted  not  the  being  on  an 
equahty  with  God  a  thing  to  be  grasped,  but  emptied 
himself,  taking  the  form  of  a  servant,  being  made  in 
the  likeness  of  men  ;  and  being  found  in  fashion  as  a 
man  he  humbled  himself,  becoming  obedient  even 
unto  death,  yea,  the  death  of  the  cross."  " 

Only  on  the  background  of  Christ's  heavenly 
glory  shall  we  appreciate  (and  so  imitate)  that  de- 
scription of  his  condescension,  "  Though  he  was 
rich,  3^et  for  our  sakes  he  became  poor." 

As  our  new  industrialism  is  renewing  class  con- 
flicts, the  imitation  of  Christ  in  his  giving  of  himself 
to  the  poor  is  increasingly  needed.  The  social  set- 
tlements and  the  unpaid  "  friendly  visitors"  of  char- 
ity organization  societies  are  tokens  that  at  least  a 
few  of  the  Christian  leaders  of  social  reform  appre- 
ciate that  it  is  not  sufficient  to  say,  "  Here  is  iny 
check,  send  a  city  missionary  to  uplift  the  poor." 
Nothing  will  meet  the  case  but  that  noblesse  oblige 
which  is  prompting  some  of  the  rich  and  educated 
to  say,  "  Here  am  I,  send  me^  In  his  poor.  Christ 
says  to  the  rich,  "  I  seek  not  yours,  but  j/^?^. "  What 
the  poor  need  more  than  money  and  charitable  ma- 
chinery is  character,  courage,  comfort,  counsel,  the 
uplift  of  brotherly  fellowship  with  stronger  minds 
and  hearts. 

The  Church  must  come  back,  after  its  wasted 
years  of  throwing  alms  at  beggars,  to  the  wisdom  of 
its  very  first  charity,  when  Peter  said  to  the  cripple 
at  the    Beautiful   Gate  :   "  Silver   and    gold   have    1 

•^"  Pliil.  2   :  5-S. 


54  BEFORE   THE   LOST  ARTS. 

none  ;  such  as  I  have  give  I  thee.  In  the  Name  of 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  rise  up  and  walk,"  and  then  lent 
a  hand  and  put  him  on  his  feet  and  lifted  him  out  of 
his  beggary  by  the  impartation  of  new  life.  "  That 
transformation  of  the  poor  can  still  be  wrought  as 
surely,  if  not  as  suddenly,  as  in  the  ancient  miracle  by 
the  giving  of  ourselves  to  our  weaker  brothers  "  in 
his  Name." 

The  "  up-town"  march  of  city  churches  does  not 
keep  step  with  this  evangel.  In  such  a  case  no 
doubt  the  local  church  is  less  to  blame  than  the 
wealthy  members  who  have  withdrawn  not  only 
themselves,  but  also  their  support ;  less  to  blame  aLso 
than  the  denomination,  which  might  use  its  home 
missionary  funds  much  more  effectively  in  subsidiz- 
iag  down-town  city  churches,  adapting  them  to  their 
new  environment  than  in  replacing  them  by  the 
"  missions,"  which  the  proud  poor  consider  as  "  sec- 
ond-class cars,"  or  in  planting  churches  in  what  will 
always  be  sparsely  settled  communities  that  are 
already  oversupplied  with  underpaid  ministers. 
From  down-town  New  York  a  score  of  evangelical 
churches  have  moved  up-town  during  a  few  years 
past,  leaving  behind  their  poorer  members  and  their 
historic  temples,  hallowed  by  sacred  history.  The 
like  is  occurring  in  other  large  cities.  Meantime,  the 
number  of  souls  and  the  need  of  Christian  influences 
in  the  region  deserted  has  increased.  Only  the  dol- 
lars have  dmiinished.  The  deserted  church,  though 
weak  financially,  had  historic  dignity.  Subsidized 
by  its  "  alumni"  or  by  denominational  aid,  it  would 
still  have  been  a  "  church."  A  "  mission"  put  in  its 
place,  not  only  because  of  its  weaker  pulpit  and  in- 
ferior music,  but  also  because  it  is  a  "  missioii''  to 


CHRIST   THE    CREATOR.  55 

down-town  heathen,  will  not  be  much  attended  by 
men^  but  chiefly  by  children  of  its  Sabbath-school. 
And  yet  the  Christian  army  goes  on  evacuating  the 
very  spots  where  society  as  well  as  individuals  most 
need  it,  and  the  Church  at  large  shares  the  blame 
for  standing  by  like  Saul  at  Stephen's  death,  "  con- 
senting." Preachers  say  to  their  ecclesiastical 
courts  in  behalf  of  their  removals,  "  Most  of  our 
members  have  moved  up-town,  and  the  population 
around  our  church  is  now  largely  Jews  and  foreign- 
ers." The  fact  is,  the  "  most"  that  has  moved  is  not 
"  most"  numerically,  but  only  financially.  And  as  to 
"  Jews  and  foreigners,"  it  is  hard  to  see  why,  if  their 
souls  are  worth  enough  to  send  missionaries  to  them 
in  foreign  lands,  at  great  cost,  it  is  not  worth  while 
to  make  some  little  effort  to  save  them  in  the  more 
favorable  environment  of  our  own  land. 

Shall  the  whole  burden  of  removing  class  and  race 
feehng  in  our  composite  people  be  rolled  upon  the 
public  schools,  now  deprived  of  the  Bible  of  brother- 
hood in  many  of  our  cities,  where  these  problems 
are  chiefly  met  ? 

"  The  rich  and  the  poor  meet  together,  the  Lord 
is  the  Maker  of  them  all"  is  a  text  that  should  be 
illustrated  in  every  Church  and  in  every  Sabbath- 
school,*  not  by  sufferance  only,  but  by  special  effort, 
if  need  be.  The  social  settlement  is  but  the  effort 
of  individuals.  Christian  in  spirit  if  not  always  in 
name,  to  capture  the  ground  which  the  organized 
Church  has  surrendered.  It  points  the  way  for  such 
a  reorganization  of  down-town  Christian  work  as  is 
needed  not  by  the  poor  only,  but  also  by  the  rich  and 
by  civihzation  itself,  imperiled  by  class  hatreds, 
which  equality  and  fraternity  in  the  churches  must 


56  BEFORE   THE    LOST  ARTS. 

help  to  heal.  Let  every  down-town  church  and 
Sabbath-school  be  treated  as  a  social  settlement,  to 
which  rich  and  educated  men  and  women  and  chil- 
dren shall  give  themselves,  not  in  condescension, 
but  in  brotherhood. 

Behold  the  Prince  of  Paradise, 
The  peerless  Wisdom  of  the  wise, 
The  Millionaire  of  stars,  arise, 
And  laying  by  his  wealth  and  crown, 
His  palace  steps  to  earth  come  down, 
The  sinful  and  the  sad  to  raise 
And  point  them  to  the  gates  of  praise, 
And  teach  the  selfish  sons  of  earth 
That  service  is  the  highest  worth  ; 
That  he  is  nearest  to  the  throne 
Who  nobly  seeketh  not  his  own  ; 
That  they  whose  learning  bows  to  love 
Shall  see  its  wisdom  shine  above  ; 
And  they  the  lowliest  who  befriend 
With  Christ  to  glory  shall  ascend. 

Wilbur  P.  Crafts,  Let  this  Mind  be  in  You. 


TIL 

TRANSFIGURED  FLESH. 

§  6.  Another  lesson  from  the  Oldest  Testament 
of  nature,  as  opened  to  us  in  the  Holy  Mount,  is 
that  every  man  may  metamorphose  his  flesh  through 
his  spirit  or  his  spirit  through  his  flesh  ;  may  be,  in 
short,  in  a  large  sense,  Christ  or  beast.  This  is  the 
practical  half  truth  in  Darwinism.  Its  main  claims 
as  to  the  accidental  origin  of  species  and  the  animal 
origin  of  man  have  as  yet  won  nothing  better  than 
the  Scotch  verdict  of  "  not  proven  ;"  '  but  evolution- 
ary studies  have  been  of  service  in  showing  man's 
danger  of  descending  to  animalism,  whether  ascend- 
ed from  it  or  not  ;  in  showing  also  the  great  differ- 
ence in  men,  to  whose  highest  possibilities  we  should 
aspire. 

It  is  significant  that  while  evolutionists  attempt  to 
account  for  Bushmen  on  their  uphill  theory  of  high- 
er life  from  lower,  they  do  not  attempt  to  so  account 
for  Christ.'  If  evolution  was  the  plan  of  life's  de- 
velopment it  would  manifestly  be  the  plan  for  the 
whole  of  it,  and  he  too  should  be  born  from  below  ; 

•  See  my  two  articles.  "  Darwinism  not  Proven"  (Pulpit  Trcas 
ury,  1 884),  in  which  I  quote  seventy-two  verdicts  of  leading  schol- 
ars, of  whom  only  six  claim  that  the  main  doctrines  of  Darwinism 
are  proven,  the  others  declaring  or  admitting  that  they  are  not. 
These  verdicts  will  also  be  found  in  the  final  appendix  of  these  lec- 
tures, when  the  four  volumes  are,  in  1S97,  published  in  one  vol- 
ume. 

2  Calderwood's  "  Evolution,"  323. 


58  BEFORE   THE    LOST   ARTS. 

and  other  men,  with  nineteen  centuries  more  time  in 
which  to  evolve,  should  have  surpassed  or  at  least 
equaled  him. 

It  is  true,  however,  and  he  so  taught  that  the  most 
beastlike  of  men  may  become  Christlike  in  triumph 
over  the  flesh  by  receiving-  his  spirit.  Some  men, 
no  doubt,  live  in  the  "animal  kingdom,"  where 
shallow  text-books  place  us  all,  but  no  man  "  be- 
longs" to  it.  Every  being  should  be  classified  by 
his  highest  affiliations.  Christ  is  allied  to  man  on 
one  side,  but  we  classify  him  as  divine  because  on 
the  other  side  he  is  allied  to  God.  So  man  is  allied 
to  animals  on  his  bodily  side,  but  to  God  and  Christ 
and  angels  in  his  spiritual  nature,  and  so  belongs  to 
that  highest  of  kingdoms,  which  the  shallow  text- 
books omit,  the  spiritual  kingdom. 

The  aged  Emperor  of  Germany,  of  a  few  years 
since,  William  I.,  visiting  a  school,  held  up  a  stone 
and  asked,  **  To  what  kingdom  does  this  belong?" 
The  school  replied,  "To  the  mineral  kingdom." 
"And  to  what  kingdom  this?"  said  the  emperor, 
holding  up  a  flower.  "  To  the  vegetable  kingdom" 
was  the  prompt  answer.  And  then  the  emperor, 
wishing  to  illustrate  the  animal  kingdom,  said, 
"And  to  what  kingdom  do  I  belong?"  The  chil- 
dren were  silent.  Wiser  than  their  books,  they 
felt  the  absurdity  of  classifying  their  Christian  em- 
peror with  animals.  At  last  one  child  said  rever- 
ently, "To  God's  kingdom.  Sire."  To  that  king- 
dom the  transfigured  flesh  of  the  Son  of  man  re- 
minds us  that  humanity  belongs,  a  kingdom  into 
which  we  are  not  evolved  by  environment  ;  into 
which  we  are  not  born  from  below,  but  from  above 
and  from  within. 


TRANSFIGURED   FLESH.  59 

"  As  he  prayed  the  fashion  of  his  countenance  was 
changed."  It  is  through  prayer  that  our  animal  na- 
ture is  subdued  and  our  spiritual  nature  enthroned 
as  its  master — master  because  it  has  become  a  "  par- 
taker of  the  Divine  nature  ;"  because  the  human 
spirit,  in  its  losing  battle  with  the  flesh,  has  been 
reinforced  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  Christ  pictures  and 
proves  the  possibility  of  such  a  conquest.  "  He  was 
tempted  in  all  points  like  as  we  are,  yet  without 
sin."  A  man  of  like  passions  with  us,  he  ran  the 
gauntlet  of  temptation  unscathed  because  he  was 
first  filled  with  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  was  not  his  Di- 
vine nature  that  saved  him,  but  the  permeation  of 
his  human  nature  with  the  Holy  Spirit.  He  con- 
quered as  our  example  by  the  aid  of  only  such  allies 
as  wait  our  call.  It  is  not  enough  that  we  should 
overcome  the  downward  gravitation  of  human  na- 
ture toward  what  is  beastly  ;  we  must  rise  to  what 
is  Christly,  not  by  the  crucifying,  but  rather  by  the 
purif3'ing  of  passion,  which  of  all  our  physical  na- 
ture is  most  like  creatorship. 

FlesJi  transfigured  by  the  renewing  of  the  mind  throiigJi 
prayer — that  is  one  of  the  manifold  meanings  of  the 
coronation  of  the  Son  of  man  on  Mount  Hermon,  which 
pictures  also  the  coronation  that  may  and  should  occur  in 
every  man,  the  coronation  of  the  spirit  as  King  over  the 
flesh. 

Nearly  all  un-Christian  philosophies  and  theolo- 
gies make  nature,  especially  "  the  flesh,"  the  seat  of 
sin  and  the  enemy  of  God.  The  Bible  makes  nature 
the  child  of  God,  every  land  a  "  Holy  Land,"  and 
the  transfigured  flesh  of  him  who  has  the  mind  of 
Christ  obeys  his  commands  for  the  flesh  :  "  Love  God 
with  all  thy  strength.''     "  Glorify  God  in  your  body.'' 


6o  BEFORE   THE   LOST   ARTS. 

The  unquestioned  facts  that  the  evolutionists  have 
gathered  from  the  comparative  study  of  men  and 
animals  suggest  as  the  great  practical  lesson  of  Dar- 
winism—our duty  as  possessing  powers  above  the 
beasts  to  live  something  more  than  an  animal  life. 
Shall  we  sink  to  the  beasts,  that  border  us  on  the 
lower  side,  or  rise  to  likeness  with  Christ,  who  bor- 
ders us  on  the  upper  side  and  pictures  in  his  life 
what  we  may  and  should  be  ? 

The  great  question  is  not  what  we  came  from,  but 
what  are  we  coming  to  ?  not,  Did  we  ascend  from 
the  animals  ?  but,  Are  we  descending  to  their  level, 
caring  for  nothing  higher  than  the  gratification  of 
our  appetites  and  passions,  with  no  more  attention 
to  the  moral  nature  that  separates  us  from  animals 
than  if  we  had  none  ? 

Men  have  known  for  ages  that  they  had  many  ap- 
petites, passions,  and  emotions  in  common  with  ani- 
mals. Scripture,  science,  history,  and  personal  ex- 
perience all  shovved  this;  but  Darwin's  explorations 
have  greatly  increased  our  knowledge  on  this  point 
and  underscored  two  great  lessons  which  it  sug- 
gests. 

One  of  these  is  that  man  is  in  danger^  because  of  his 
animal  nature,  of  being  dragged  down  to  a  life  like  that 
of  the  lowest  animals.  It  is  this  which  has  made  it  so 
natural,  from  the  days  of  ^sop,  to  picture  the  faults 
of  men  by  fables  of  animals.  I  know  of  a  wise  moth- 
er who  impressively  reproves  her  little  ones  for 
wrongdoing  by  fables  in  which  mice  and  other  ani- 
mals are  made  to  do  the  naughty  things  which  the 
children  have  done,  whose  ugliness  they  are  thus 
made  to  see  as  mother  sees  it. 

Man   can    be   saved   from  descent  into  animalism 


TRANSFIGURED   FLESH.  6l 

only  by  recovering  the  dominion  which  God  gave 
him  at  the  first  over  the  whole  realm  of  animal  life, 
in  himself  di?,  well  as  about  him.  It  was  through  an 
animal  that  Satan  made  his  first  successful  attack 
upon  man,  and  it  is  on  the  animal  side  of  man's  na- 
ture that  his  subsequent  attacks  have  been  most  fre- 
quently made. 

"  The  whiskey  glass  has  a  power  opposite  to  that 
of  Ithuriel's  spear.  That  touched  a  toad — and  lo,  a 
fallen  angel  !  This  touches  a  human  form— and  lo, 
a  brute  !"  Two  drunken  women  in  New  York  City 
paused  to  view  a  dead  horse.  After  a  good  look, 
one  of  them  said,  in  a  voice  that  was  almost  a  wail, 
"  God  help  the  three  of  us." 

During  a  discussion  of  religious  topics,  a  dissolute 
skeptic  said  :  "  1  tell  you  that,  if  the  other  animals 
do  not  exist  after  death,  neither  will  man.  There  is 
no  difference  between  a  man  and  a  beast."  And  the 
Christian  with  whom  he  was  debating  mildly  re- 
plied :  "  If  anybody  could  convince  me  of  that  it 
would  be  you." 

We  call  a  people  "  savage"  where  the  God-estab- 
lished dominion  of  man's  mind  over  his  animal  na- 
ture has  been  overthrown  and  the  lower  nature  has 
become  dictator.  It  is  like  Charles  XII.  sending  his 
boots  to  preside  over  his  Council  of  State,  or  Cahg- 
ula  defying  his  horse.  No  wonder  the  savage,  with 
his  body  enthroned  king  over  his  soul,  becomes 
more  cruel  than  the  animals.  Falling  from  a  higher 
point,  the  descent  is  lower.  Such  savages  are  found 
even  in  our  own  land,  especially  in  large  cities  and 
on  frontiers.  And  there  are  civilized  savages  among 
the  rich— greedy,  cruel,  lustful. 

It  was  savagery  in  the  thin  disguise  of  civilization 


62  BEFORE   THE    LOST  ARTS. 

that  made  a  hero  of  Jesse  James.  It  is  savagery 
that  sends  crowds  to  walking  matches  and  prize 
fights,  both  of  which  are  "  cruelty  to  animals.''  It 
was  very  suggestive  when,  in  a  modern  walking 
match,  men  and  horses  competed,  and  the  bipeds 
won.  They  were  hardly  less  animals  than  the 
horses.  The  drunkards  and  libertines  and  prosti- 
tutes are  only  tribes  of  savages  in  disguise.  A 
Canadian  Episcopal  bishop,  of  Scotch  birth,  was  the 
guest,  some  time  ago,  of  a  certain  rector  in  Buffalo. 
Speaking  of  his  visit  afterward,  the  old  gentleman 
said  :  *'  They  were  all  good  people,  and  most  kind, 
I  am  sure  ;  but  do  you  know,  my  dear,  they  gave 
me  water  to  drink  at  the  table  and  upon  going  to 
bed,  as  if  1  had  been  a  horse."  Evidently  he  would 
have  preferred  that  they  should  have  given  him 
whiskey,  as  if  he  had  been  a  savage.  It  is  savagery  also 
that  calls  for  the  revolting  details  of  the  deeds  of  the 
savages  of  civilization  in  the  newspapers. 

But  all  of  us,  in  varying  degrees,  are  keepers  of 
caged  animals,  and,  like  the  men  in  the  menagerie 
cages  of  circus  processions,  we  need  to  be  constant- 
ly watchful,  lest  our  animal  passions  spring  upon  us 
and  get  the  mastery.^  Paul  was  thinking  of  such 
dangers  when  he  said,  "  I  keep  my  body  under." 
David  knew  of  such  perils  when  he  wrote,  "  I  will 
keep  my  mouth  with  a  bridle,"  and  again,  "  Be  ye 
not  as  the  horse  or  as  the  mule."  And  James  had 
like  analogies  in  his  mind  w.hen  he  said,  "  The  tongue 
can  no  man  tame."     Properly  governed,  the  body  is 

3  Dr.  Mark  Hopkins  reminds  us  that  because  man  has  animal 
nature  in  himself,  among  most  primitive  people  men  have  been 
named  from  animals,  and  some  of  those  names  are  still  retained. 
Thus  we  have  among  us  Lyons,  Foxes,  Wolfs,  Lambs,  Bulls,  Colts, 
Hoggs,  Hawks,  Wrens,  an(i  Martins. 


TRANSFIGURED   FLESH.  63 

the  most  helpful  of  our  "  domestic  animals  "  It  is 
our  war  horse  in  the  battle  of  life,  by  which  our 
power  is  greatly  magnified.  It  is  a  great  misfortune 
for  a  strong  mind  to  have  a  weak  body — to  be  "  too 
heavy  for  the  animal  you  ride."  It  is  a  greater  mis- 
fortune to  be  run  away  with  by  animal  appetites. 
The  body  is  a  grand  servant,  but  a  bad  master.  The 
strong  passions  of  youth  are  like  a  span  of  blooded 
steeds,  grandly  beautiful  and  nobly  useful  while  we 
have  them  "  well  in  hand"  and  drive  them  onlv  in 
the  enthusiasm  of  virtue,  but  vain  things  for  satety 
when  we  lose  self-control.  It  is  one  of  the  monstrous 
sins  and  follies  of  the  parents  and  churches  of  this 
age  that  they  allow  such  steeds  to  be  lashed  all  along 
our  streets  into  runaways  by  the  indecent  pictures 
of  theaters,  and  tobacconists,  and  news-dealers,  and 
by  the  fashions  borrowed  from  the  Paris  denii-vwndc^ 
and  by  the  American  demi-monde  themselves,  whose 
dens  are  as  well  known  and  as  quickly  accessible  to 
tempted  youth  as  any  kind  of  business  in  our  cities. 

I  recall  Landseer's  attempt  to  picture  Wellington 
and  his  officers  at  Waterloo.  One  is  likely  to  mis- 
take the  picture  for  a  horse  fair  because  the  horses 
are  painted  so  much  more  skillfully  than  the  Iron 
Duke.  Landseer  also  essayed  to  paint  an  English 
princess,  but  her  pony  is  what  takes  the  spectator's 
chief  attention.  In  the  palace  at  Turin  there  is  an 
equestrian  statue  in  which  some  Landseer-like  sculp- 
tor has  made  an  immense  horse  almost  hide  the  small 
rider  in  whose  honor  it  was  raised.  So  in  many 
human  lives,  the  animal  is  more  prominent  than  the 
inward  man,  and  the  appetites  crowd  the  religious 
nature  into  the  background.  "  They  overeat  their 
prayers,"     In  pictures  of  great  characters  it  is  cus- 


64  BEFORE   THE   LOST  ARTS. 

tomary  to  picture  only  the  head  and  bust  in  uncon- 
scious recognition  of  the  fact  that  it  is  head  and 
heart  that  constitute  the  real  man. 

These  animal  powers,  so  valuable  when  used 
aright,  are  fraught  with  peril,  since  they  make  us 
liable  to  all  the  faults  of  animals. 

The  Bible  is  full  of  warnings  against  this  danger 
of  surrendering  the  throne  of  life  to  the  animal  na- 
ture. Jeremiah  exclaims  of  his  degenerate  people, 
"  Every  man  is  become  brutish."  Every  man  today 
is  at  least  in  danger  of  becoming  brutish.  The  ene- 
mies of  Christ  are  described  as  "dogs,"  "strong 
bulls  of  Bashan,"  "  ravening  and  roaring  lions," 
"wolves,"  "vipers."  Ishmael  in  his  wickedness 
was  pictured  as  "  a  wild  ass  of  a  man,"  and  Israel 
was  said  to  have  "  behaved  like  a  stubborn  heifer," 
and  her  rulers  are  called  "dumb  dogs"  that  gave 
no  warning  to  the  people  of  their  danger.  When 
the  Psalmist  had  been  doubting  God's  love  and  wis- 
dom, he  exclaimed,  "  So  foolish  was  I  and  ignorant ; 
1  was  as  a  beast  before  thee."  Daniel  represents 
the  wicked  human  race  under  the  form  of  beasts  in 
contrast  with  Christ  as  the  Son  of  man.  The  Jews 
were  compared  to  sheep  going  astray.  How  often 
they  followed  such  bell-wethers  as  Jeroboam  and 
Omri  in  wholesale  backsliding  !  Not  less  sheeplike 
are  many  today  in  following  a  multitude  to  do  evil. 
When  the  various  types  of  men  were  pictured  to 
Peter  in  a  vision  by  all  sorts  of  animals,  how  appro- 
priate it  was  that  "  creeping  things"  were  included  ! 
What  a  picture  of  the  man  who  makes  haste  to  be 
rich  by  overthrowing  or  underpaying  the  poor,  or 
by  liquor  selling  is  given  in  the  tenth  Psalm  : 

"  He  lurketh  in  the  covert  as  a  lion  in  his  den  : 


TRANSFIGURED  FLESH.  65 

He  lieth  in  wait  to  catch  the  poor." 

Christ  calls  the  tricky,  drunken,  lustful  Herod 
"  that  fox,"  a  label  for  every  other  political  "  boss" 
whose  smartness  is  "earthy,  sensual,  and  devilish." 
How  significant  it  was  that  in  the  olden  time  in  Ven- 
ice, when  the  rulers  were  beasts  of  prey,  the  letter- 
box into  which  men  dropped  their  complaints  to  the 
authorities  against  those  they  wished  to  have  put 
out  of  the  way  was  a  lion's  mouth  !  Standards  and 
flags  representing  lions,  eagles,  dragons,  serpents, 
were  all  appropriate  as  national  symbols  of  the 
brutal  politics  of  former  ages,  but  they  no  longer 
represent  the  humane  ideals  of  the  best  citizenship 
of  Europe  and  America.  The  eagle  was  an  appro- 
priate symbol  for  Rome  preying  upon  all  weaker 
nations,  but  it  is  not  a  fit  emblem  for  world-befriend- 
ing America. 

I  do  not  mean  that  there  is  no  animalism  left  in 
American  politics  today.  A  distinguished  ex-sena- 
tor is  reported  to  have  said,  "  1  would  vote  for  an 
ox  if  he  were  the  nominee  of  my  party."  Men 
hardly  less  animal  than  an  ox  do  get  majority  votes. 
A  printer  expressed  that  truth  by  accident  in  setting 
up  the  report  of  a  political  debate  in  which  both 
sides  were  selfishly  struggling  for  "  spoils,"  when  he 
made  ''pros  and  cons'  ''pigs  and  cows.''  A  deputa- 
tion from  a  legislature,  on  a  visit  to  the  State  insane 
asylum,  while  walking  through  the  corridors,  were 
greeted  by  one  of  the  lunatics,  who  was  peering 
through  the  gratings  of  a  cell  door,  "  Well,  I  de- 
clare, if.  here  ain't  the  animals  from  Noah's  ark  !" 
If  it  was  a  legislature  that  had  licensed  liquor,  lust 
and  lotteries,  the  profound  remark  entitled  the  luna- 
tic to  liberty.     On  one  of  the  members  of  such  a  leg- 


66  BEFORE   THE    LOST   ARTS. 

islature  saying,  "  We  must  return  to  the  food  of  our 
ancestors,"  somebody  asked  :  "  What  food  does  he 
mean?"     "  Thistles,  1  suppose,"  was  the  reply. 

The  power  of  whiskey  in  elections  is  a  thermome- 
ter showing  how  much  the  animal  nature  still  has  to 
do  in  politics  ;  but  over  this  part  of  the  animal  realm 
God  has  given  us  dominion  with  the  rest,  and  we 
have  only  to  march  in  and  possess  it. 

History  and  literature  are  full  of  warnings  against 
this  danger  of  the  enthronins^  of  animalism  in  human 
lives.  The  Romans  punished  the  murderer  of  his 
father  by  flaying  him  alive  and  then  tying  him  up  in 
a  sack  with  a  dog,  a  cock,  an  ape,  and  a  viper,  and 
so  throwing  him  into  the  sea,  as  if  to  say  he  had 
sunk  from  manhood  to  be  a  conglomeration  of  these 
creatures.  The  Egyptians  taught  that  those  who 
lived  like  low  animals  in  this  world  would  be  sent 
back  after  death  in  the  form  of  a  sow  or  some  other 
animal  for  endless  transmigrations  through  similar 
creatures.  The  Hindus  teach  that  in  the  future 
world  drunkards  will  become  frogs  ;  backbiters,  tor- 
toises ;  misers,  cranes.  Socrates  believed  that  those 
who  gave  themselves  up  to  gluttony,  lust,  and  in- 
temperance would  in  the  future  world  put  on  the 
nature  of  asses  ;  while  the  unjust  and  tyrannical 
would  become  wolves  and  hawks.  Shakespeare 
makes  Bassanio  say  to  Shylock,  as  that  human  beast 
of  prey    is  clamoring   for  his   pound  of  ifesh  from 

Antonio's  breast  : 

"  Inexorable  dog, 
Thou  almost  mak'st  me  waver  in  my  faith, 
To  hold  opinion  with  Pythagoras 
That  souls  of  animals  infuse  themselves 
Into  the  trunks  of  men  ;  thy  currish  spirit 
Governed  a  wolf,  for  thy  desires 
Are  wolfish,  bloody,  starved,  and  ravenous." 


TRANSFIGURED   FLESH.  6/ 

This  danger  of  sinking  into  animalism  also  colors 
the  common  speech,  and  gives  point  to  much  of  the 
wit  of  every  land  and  age.  The  beasts  of  prey  who 
devour  each  other  on  boards  of  trade  by  tricks  and 
lies  are  indeed  "  bulls  and  bears."  The  slanderers 
of  the  dead  are  rightly  termed  *'  hyenas,"  and  other 
secret  slanderers  of  the  hving  are  "  snakes  in  the 
grass."  "The  man  whose  highest  enjoyment  is 
fighting  an  adversary  is  a  gamecock.  The  man  who 
dresses  in  the  latest  style  and  exhibits  himself  at  the 
church  door  while  the  congregation  files  out  is  a 
peacock.  The  man  who  consecrates  his  life  to  hiv- 
mg  and  hoarding  is  no  more  than  a  bee  or  an  ant — a 
better  kind  of  animal  than  peacock  or  gamecock,  but 
nothing  but  an  animal."  The  man  whose  chief  pur- 
pose in  living  is  to  swill  his  stomach  with  alcohol  is 
fitly  named  "  a  hog."  It  is  significant  in  this  con- 
nection that  a  group  of  scientific  men  in  Paris  are 
making  systematic  experiments  upon  pigs  with  a 
view  of  ascertaining  the  precise  action  of  alcohol 
upon  the  processes  of  digestion,  respiration,  and 
secretion.  The  pig  has  been  chosen  for  these  ex- 
periments, it  is  said,  because  his  digestive  apparatus 
closely  resembles  in  all  essential  particulars  that  of 
man,  and  also  because  he  is  almost  the  only  animal 
besides  man  that  will  consent  to  be  dosed  with  alco- 
hol, which  reminds  us  that  Dr.  Holland  once  said, 
"  There  is  a  good  deal  of  human  nature  in  the  pig, 
or  else  there  is  a  good  deal  of  pig  in  human 
nature." 

The  latter  at  least  is  true.  In  the  Sandwich 
Islands  of  former  days  the  women  made  pets  of  the 
pigs  and  slept  with  them.  Alas  :  that  American 
women  even  now  make  favorites  and  even  husbands 


6S  .        BEFORE   THE   LOST  ARTS. 

of  those  who  "  make  hogs  of  themselves"  by  living 
only  for  the  satisfaction  of  appetite.  How  much  the 
following  sounds  like  the  description  of  what  some 
human  "  pigs"  call  "  a  good  time  !"  In  Grass  Val- 
ley, Cal.,  the  hogs  of  a  ranch  recently  drank  of  the 
contents  of  a  wine  cask  which  ran  out  into  a  pool. 
An  account  of  the  "spree"  is  given  as  follows: 
"  Some  were  frisky  and  full  of  play,  others  belliger- 
ent and  swaggering  around  hunting  up  fights  ;  some 
maundering  around  in  an  imbecile  way,  walking  in 
corkscrew  style  and  tumbling  over  the  least  obstruc- 
tion that  lay  in  their  path,  while  several  of  the  larger 
hogs,  that  had  managed  to  get  in  the  heaviest  loads, 
were  incapable  of  motion."  These  drunken  hogs, 
on  recovering,  it  is  said,  solemnly  adopted  this 
pledge  :  "  We  have  always  been  beasts  until  this  un- 
lucky slip,  and  we  promise  ourselves  that  we  will 
never  make  7/ien  of  ourselves  again."  In  a  school  in 
Illinois,  the  pastor  asked  his  class,  "  Why  is  it  that 
such  as  Adonijah  will  not  learn  from  the  example  of 
such  as  Absalom  ?"  The  answer  from  a  Norwegian 
brother  was  prompt  :  "  You  feed  hot  swill,  and 
every  pig  is  going  to  burn  his  own  nose  and  squeal 
and  run  ;  he  won't  learn  nothing/'  When  a  printer, 
setting  up  an  article  for  a  very  precise  preacher  on 
the  fifteenth  chapter  of  Luke,  which  contains  the 
story  of  the  lost  s/icef>,  the  lost  coiJi,  and  the  prodigal 
So7t,  made  the  summary  of  the  chapter  read,  "  The 
sheep,  the  cow,  and  the  sow,"  he  unconsciously  pro- 
claimed the  Bible  truth  that  prodigals  are  self-made 
beasts. 

George  William  Curtis,  in  his  suggestive  book  en- 
titled "  Prue  and  I,"  makes  a  city  full  of  people, 
seen  through  Titbottom's  spectacles,  which  penetrate 


TRANSFIGURED   FLESH.  69 

all  disguises  and  see  things  and  people  as  they  are, 
appear  as  a  menagerie  of  animals. 

"  In  the  world's  broad  field  of  battle, 
In  the  bivouac  of  life, 
Be  not  like  dumb,  driven  cattle, 
Be  a  hero  in  the  strife." 

Longfellow,  Psalm  of  Life. 

Many  faults  that  were  once  thought  peculiar  to 
men  and  sometimes  deemed  "  manly"  are  now 
known  to  be  a  part  of  our  common  inheritance  with 
the  brutes.  A  Berlin  gorilla  pouts  and  smokes. 
Hogs,  and  sparrows,  and  mice  have  proved  them- 
selves capable  of  getting  drunk.  Dogs  in  Munich 
sometimes  sit  with  the  families  to  which  they  belong 
at  the  tables  in  the  beer  gardens,  and  drink  beer 
with  as  much  rehsh  as  the  bipeds  around  them. 
That  fishes  manifest  anger,  fear,  and  other  passions 
is  insisted  on  by  Rev.  S.  J.  Whitmee,  in  the  Pro- 
ceedings of  the  Zoological  Society  of  London.  His 
observations  were  made  in  Samoa,  where  he  kept 
the  native  fishes  in  aquaria,  and  watched  their  quar- 
rels, which  are  by  no  means  infrequent  among  the 
individuals  of  the  same  species,  and  constantly  occur 
between  different  species  and  genera,  the  signs  of 
anger  being  obvious,  especially,  as  seen  in  the  move- 
ments of  the  fins  and  spines.  Under  the  influence  of 
great  anger  or  fear  the  dorsal  fin  is  raised  to  its  ex- 
treme height,  and  the  spines  both  of  the  dorsal  and 
anal  fins  are  very  prominent.  Besides  this  the  scales 
all  over  the  body  are  raised,  so  that  the  fish  looks 
larger  than  when  its  mind  is  unruffled.  These  views 
are  in  the  main  confirmed  by  Dr.  Day  in  the  same 
Proceedings.  Even  a  monkey  can  "get  mad  and 
smash  things. ' '    Scribner  s  Monthly  described  an  oriole 


70  BEFORE  THE  LOST  ARTS. 

belonging  to  a  mostly  monogamous  tribe  who  built 
a  double  nest  and  took  to  himself  two  wives.  A 
cockatoo  who  was  allowed  a  bed  and  roost  at  one 
end  of  a  lounge,  and  had  enjoyed  it  a  long  time,  one 
day  discovered  a  pet  dog  occupying  the  unoccupied 
end.  For  one  moment  he  stood  irresolute,  bristling 
with  indignation  ;  the  next  his  mind  was  made  up. 
Carefully,  silently,  he  let  himself  down  to  the 
ground  ;  then,  with  the  greatest  care  to  tread  soft- 
ly, he  walked  underneath  the  couch.  On  reaching 
the  other  end  he  leaped  on  the  couch,  his  feathers 
spread,  and  his  face  full  of  fury  ;  he  uttered  a  pierc- 
ing shriek,  and  the  dog  was  off  the  couch  in  a  mo- 
ment, and  the  cockatoo  returned  with  an  important 
air  to  his  nap  at  the  other  end — an  animal  antitype 
of  many  a  human  quarrel  in  business-,  and  politics, 
and  "  society,"  A  Brooklyn  lady  was  awakened  by 
a  movement  under  her  bed.  She  thought  of  thieves 
immediately  ;  but  her  husband,  upon  being  awak- 
ened, said  he  guessed  the  noise  must  be  made  by  the 
tamily  dog.  He  reached  his  hand  down  to  the 
floor,  and  in  a  moment  felt  a  warm  tongue  lapping 
it.  Then  he  went  to  sleep,  and  awoke  in  the  morn- 
ing to  find  the  apartment  generally  "  cleaned  out." 
The  lapping-  was  a  clever  device  of  a  thief,  but  the 
man  was  indeed  an  animal  ;  not  a  dog,  but  a  beast 
of  prey. 

How  can  we  subdue  the  animal  in  us  and  save  our- 
selves from  further  peril  ?  An  incident  of  the  wom- 
an's crusade  will  answer.  In  a  Western  city,  when 
a  few  devoted  women  were  praying  on  the  sidewalk 
before  a  saloon,  the  proprietor,  in  a  fit  of  anger,  set 
two  dogs  on  the  leader  of  the  meeting.  With  a 
quiet  yet  fearless  spirit  she  laid  her  hands  upon  their 


TRANSFIGURED    FLESH.  /I 

heads  and  continued  praying-,  while  they  crouched 
at  her  feet.  It  was  the  story  of  Daniel  in  the  lion's 
den  repeated  in  the  nineteenth  century.  That  man 
soon  gave  up  the  business,  and,  with  his  six  broth- 
ers, embraced  Christianity,  and  that  saloon  has  been 
used  for  many  years  for  Gospel  meetings.  So  tlie 
animal  in  us  is  to  be  conquered  by  prayer. 

In  the  battle  of  the  seventh  of  Romans  between 
the  flesh  and  the  spirit  within  us,  through  what  pow- 
er shall  our  animal  nature  be  conquered  }  "1  thank 
God  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.'' 

§  7.  Another  great  practical  truth  suggested  by 
Darwinism  is  that  vian  is  bound  by  the  obligation  of 
higher  capacity  to  excel  the  noblest  beasts. 

The  Bible  representation  of  the  ideal  man  is  the 
cherub  with  the  face  of  a  man,  for  reason  and  relig- 
ion ;  the  head  of  a  Hon,  for  strength  ;  the  wings  of 
an  eagle,  for  swiftness  ;  and  the  body  of  an  ox,  for 
submission  to  authority.  We  should  combine  in 
ourselves  all  that  is  excellent  in  animals.  When  Mr. 
Gladstone  said  wearily  one  day  to  Lord  Houghton, 
*'  I  am  leading  a  dog's  life,"  the  reply  was,  "  Yes, 
the  life  of  a  St.  Bernard  dog,  spent  in  saving  the 
lives  of  others." 

Evolutionary  studies,  in  showing  us  hozv  mucJi  ivc 
have  in  common  with  the  beasts,  has  indirectly  shozun  us 
how  7nuch  zue  must  do  to  excel  them.  If  a  dog  or  horse 
does  his  best,  he  is  worthy  of  all  praise  ;  but  if  a  man 
does  the  same  and  no  more,  he  is  justly  blamed  as 
false  to  his  birthright,  because  the  level  of  his  best  is 
higher.  "  Man  is  a  perfect  animal,  but  a  perfect 
animal  is  not  a  man.  To  say  of  one  he  is  a  perfect 
brute  is  not  to  compliment  him." 


72  BEFORE   THE    LOST  ARTS. 

"  Two  creatures  started  tog-ether  to  cross  the  Dela- 
ware River  at  Philadelphia.  One  was  a  Newfound- 
land dog,  and  he  was  sober  and  vigilant  ;  the  other 
was  a  drunken  man,  and  he  was  as  shaky  of  gait  and 
uncertain  of  vision  as  it  is  the  wont  of  drunken  men 
to  be.  They  came  to  an  open  space  ;  the  dog  would 
have  kept  on  the  ice,  like  a  sensible  creature  ;  the 
man,  Hke  a  senseless  creature,  dragged  them  both 
into  the  river.  The  senseless  creature  could  not 
save  himself  ;  the  sensible  creature  helped  to  save 
them  both.  In  its  general  outline  the  incident  is  a 
familiar  one.  It  is  not  the  first  time  the  lower  crea- 
ture in  the  scale  has  proved  nobler  than  the  higher  ; 
it  is,  unfortunately,  not  likely  to  be  the  last  time. 
But  how  ashamed  that  man  must  be  when  that  dog 
looks  at  him  !" 

A  penniless  drunkard  was  arrested  in  a  New  Jer- 
sey city,  on  his  wa}^  home  from  a  Boston  dog  show, 
with  three  fine  dogs  in  his  charge.  The  dogs  were 
better  fitted  to  care  for  the  man  than  the  man  for 
the  dogs  ;  as  in  another  New  Jersey  city,  years  ago, 
the  late  H.  W.  Herbert's  dog  "  Sailor"  three  times 
rescued  from  the  Passaic  River  one  of  Herbert's 
guests  who  tried  to  drown  himself  in  a  fit  of  delirium 
tremens.  So  when  a  man  mercilessly  beats  his  horse, 
"  the  greater  brute  is  often  at  the  butt  end  of  the 
whip." 

Animals  excel  man  in  many  physical  qualities. 
His  ox  is  stronger,  his  horse  is  swifter,  his  dog  has 
a  keener  scent,  his  cat  has  more  sensitive  ears  and  a 
more  perfect  sense  of  touch,  and  the  very  flies  have 
more  wonderful  eyes — strange  facts  in  the  theory  of 
evolution,  but  suggesting  that  if  a  man  is  to  excel 
animals  it  must  be  in  mind  and  soul. ' 


TRANSFIGURED    FLESH.  73 

What  is  ''manly'  in  distinction  from  animal? 
Not  monogamy,  for  the  lion  and  eagle  are  more 
true  to  their  single  wives  than  many  men  in  this  age 
of  divorces.  Not  brave  and  tender  care  of  the  fam- 
ily. Birds  and  beasts  often  show  a  love  strong  as 
death  for  their  mates  and  little  ones.  Not  only  will 
animals  sacrifice  their  lives  to  save  their  mates  and 
little  ones,  but  how  often  dogs  have  bravely  died  in 
efforts  to  save  their  masters  or  other  human  beings  ! 
In  Clean,  N.  Y.,  a  few  years  since,  when  the  St. 
Elmo  Hotel  took  fire  at  night,  the  lives  of  all  the 
guests  were  saved  by  the  hotel  dog,  "  Heck,"  who 
first  roused  the  drunken  porter  and  dragged  him 
into  the  street  and  then  ran  barking  through  the 
smoke  up  the  stairs  of  the  hotel,  scratching  and 
howling  at  door  after  door  until  all  were  rescued. 
Then,  when  the  hotel  was  wrapped  in  flame,  seeing 
a  frantic  mother,  who  did  not  know  that  her  child 
had  been  brought  out,  rush  toward  the  building,  the 
dog  took  it  as  a  sign  that  some  one  remained  to  be 
saved  and  dashed  into  the  flames  only  to  die.  How 
ashamed  that  ought  to  make  a  selfish  man,  who  is 
less  interested  in  saving  others  than  his  noble  dog  ! 
Mr.  A.  E.  Brown  describes  from  personal  observa- 
tion the  almost  uncontrollable  griet  of  a  chimpanzee 
in  Philadelphia  at  the  loss  of  his  mate.  The  affec- 
tion of  oxen  who  have  been  driven  in  pairs  is  so 
great  that  when  one  dies  the  survivor  often  pines, 
and  at  last  follows  his  old  companion.  George  Sand 
was  told  by  the  peasant  farmers  in  Berri  that  when 
one  good  beast  died  they  knew  they  would  have  to 
purchase  a  new  pair,  as  sorrow  made  the  survivor 
useless.  A  pair  of  horses  in  an  English  stable,  whose 
box-stalls  adjoined  each    other,   were    firm   friends. 


74  BEFORE   THE    LOST   ARTS. 

The  'one  who  finished  his  hay  first  invariably  re- 
ceived from  the  other  enough  to  keep  him  busy  until 
both  lots  were  consumed.  One  day  one  of  the 
horses  made  its  way  out  of  its  own  loose  box,  the 
door  of  which  was  unfastened,  and  found  out  a 
bucket  of  mash  which  was  standing  in  the  entrance 
of  the  stable,  and  taking  the  opportunity  while  the 
coachman  was  in  the  loft  overhead,  he  was  helping 
himself  freely  to  its  tempting  contents.  The  other 
horse,  who  was  fastened  to  his  own  loose  box,  caught 
sight  of  his  friend's  proceedings,  and  neighed  loud- 
ly, evidently  demanding  a  share  for  himself  ;  and  the 
servant  was  astonished  to  see  the  horse  which  was 
enjoying  himself  fill  his  mouth  with  the  mash,  and 
poke  his  nose  through  the  bars  of  the  loose  box  for 
his  friend  to  take  it  from  his  mouth.  This  was  done 
several  times.  This  incident  suggests  that  "  horse 
sense"  is  not  so  coarse  a  thing  as  is  sometimes  sup- 
posed, and  that  it  is  not  so  appropriate  as  has  been 
supposed  for  the  selfish  to  condemn  philanthropists 
as  lacking  "  horse  sense."  The  sons  of  greed  lack 
not  only  the  spiritual  sense  which  every  man  should 
have  as  his  badge  of  superiority  to  beasts-;  they  even 
lack  the  **  horse  sense"  of  which  they  boast,  if  we 
measure  them  by  the  horse  just  described.  A  farm- 
er who  had  heard  a  sermon  on  the  text  '  *  The  ox 
knoweth  his  owner,  and  the  ass  his  master's  crib, 
but  Israel  doth  not  know  ;  my  people  doth  not  con- 
sider" (Isa.  I  :  3),  went  out  to  feed  his  oxen,  when 
one  of  them  licked  his  arm,  apparently  thankful  for 
his  care.  He  burst  into  tears,  saying,  "  Yes,  it  is  all 
true.  This  poor  dumb  brute  has  more  gratitude 
than  I  ever  rendered  to  God."  And  by  the  ox  he 
was  led  to  Christ. 


TRANSFIGURED    FLESH.  75 

Nor  is  pity  for  the  sufferings  of  others  and  gener- 
osity in  reheving  them  a  quality  above  what  is 
shown  by  noble  animals.  There  are  many  well- 
authenticated  stories  of  orphan  beasts  or  birds  nour- 
ished by  those  unrelated  to  them  with  a  charity 
which  does  not  end  "  at  home."  The  Virginia  City 
Enterprise,  of  Nevada,  relates  the  following  story  : 

"  In  this  city  notice  was  recently  made  of  a  robin 
that  went  to  a  house  to  feed  .one  of  its  young  that 
some  boys  had  carried  off  and  placed  in  a  cage  that 
was  allowed  to  hang  out  of  doors.  Thomas  Prince, 
who  resides  on  Carson  River,  above  Dayton,  tells  of 
a  circumstance  still  more  singular.  He  says  a  pair 
of  robins  had  their  nest  on  a  fence  near  his  house, 
while  in  a  bush  near  by  a  pair  of  catbirds  had  built 
their  nest.  The  two  pairs  of  birds  hatched  out  their 
young  about  the  same  time,  and  all  went  well  for 
several  days.  Then  the  catbirds  w^ere  seen  no  more, 
probably  having  been  shot  by  some  of  the  bee-keep- 
ers of  Dayton.  The  young  catbirds  were  evidently 
starving.  When  the  robins  came  with  a  worm  or 
other  insect  for  their  young,  they  always  alighted 
on  the  top  rail  of  the  fence  before  hopping  down  to 
their  nest.  Each  time  when  a  robin  so  came  the  cat- 
birds opened  their  mouths,  thrust  up  their  heads, 
and  made  a  great  outcry.  They  were  begging  to 
the  best  of  their  ability  for  food.  The  robms  ap- 
peared to  understand  the  appeal,  and  began  feeding 
the  hungry  little  catbirds.  They  did  not  do  what 
they  had  undertaken  by  halves.  Each  evening  the 
female  robin  sat  on  her  own  nest  and  warmed  with 
her  body  her  own  young,  while  the  male  robin  took 
to  the  nest  of  the  catbirds.  In  this  way  both  broods 
were  reared,  the  little  orphans  growing  upas  strong 


"jG  BEFORE   THE    LOST   ARTS. 

and  lively  as  though  they  had  been  cared  for  all 
through  by  their  own  parents.  When  both  broods 
were  able  to  fly,  the  young  robins  and  catbirds  all 
flocked  together  for  a  while." 

Rev.  Dr.  H.  M.  Scudder  once  told  of  a  well-fed 
cat  who  brought  a  half-starved  one  to  share  her 
breakfast  ;  and  when  the  master,  to  test  her  benevo- 
lence, increased  her  allowance  more  and  more,  she 
continued  to  bring  other  hungry  neighbors  until  she 
had  quite  a  '*  free  breakfast"  and  "  diet  dispensary." 
Professor  Niles  matches  this  story  with  one  of  a 
well-fed  dog  who  daily  buried  the  bones  which  he 
did  not  need  and  regularly  brought  a  hungry  neigh- 
bor to  enjoy  them. 

Bees  are  aesthetic,  as  Sir  John  Lubbock  has  shown, 
in  that  they  manifest  a  distinct  preference  for  blue 
and  red,  as  if  to  remind  young  ladies  that  doting  on 
pretty  colors  is  *  *  small  business, ' '  which  should  have 
but  a  small  share  of  their  time.  In  an  article  in  Har- 
per s  Magazine  on  "  The  Decorative  Sentiment  in 
Birds,"  it  is  said  that  "  a  love  of  the  beautitul  is  a 
distinctly  marked  characteristic  of  most  members  of 
the  feathered  family" — a  remark  which  those  human 
beings  would  do  well  to  ponder  who  have  no  higher 
quality  of  soul  than  love  of  art  and  beauty. 

Animals  not  only  resemble  men  in  generous  emo- 
tions, but  also  in  what  Asa  Gray  calls  "  the  elements 
of  thought." 

Birds  obviously  do  a  great  deal  in  the  way  of  in- 
struction. An  American  naturalist,  Mr.  Clarke,  has 
lately  restated  the  facts  about  the  musical  education 
of  birds.  It  appears  from  Mr.  Clarke's  notes  that  birds 
do  not,  any  more  than  men,  inherit  instinctive  vocal 
utterance.     The  young  bird  only  inherits  the  poten- 


TRANSFIGURED    FLESH.  JJ 

tial  gift  of  song.  He  learns  "  after  long  practice,  by 
constantly  hearing  the  song  of  his  elders,  the  melody 
peculiar  to  that  species,  which  is  in  turn  similarly 
transmitted  to  the  next  generation."  So  far,  how- 
ever, is  the  "concerted  activity"  from  being  in- 
herited in  full  working  order  that  '*  the  loss  of  a  par- 
ent at  a  critical  moment  will  compel  a  young  bird  to 
study  from  other  birds,  perhaps  of  different  species,  " 
This  is  the  old  theory  of  Mr.  Daines  Barrington, 
who  himself  possessed  sky-laYks,  wood-larks,  and 
tit-larks  that  had  educated  Hnnets.  The  young  lin- 
nets sang,  not  like  their  parents,  but  like  their  tutors. 
Darwin  tells  us  of  an  ape  that  was  able  to  rise  and 
fall  the  scale.  Mrs.  Joseph  Cook  speaks  of  weaver 
birds  in  India  who  anticipated  man  in  the  use  of  elec- 
tric hghts  by  fastening  up  fireflies  in  their  nests. 
And  how  wonderful  the  sagacity  and  reasoning  of 
some  animals,  and  also  of  birds,  reptiles,  and  fishes  ! 
An  observer  of  birds  tells  the  following  story  of  "  A 
Humming  Birds  Umbrella  :"  *'  When  the  first  drops 
fell  she  came  and  took  in  her  bill  one  of  the  two  or 
three  large  leaves  growing  close  to  the  nest,  and 
laid  it  over  so  that  it  completely  covered  the  nest  ; 
then  she  flew  away.  On  looking  at  the  leaf  we 
found  a  hole  in  it,  and  in  the  side  of  the  nest  was  a 
small  stick  that  the  leaf  was  fastened  to  or  hooked 
on.  After  the  storm  was  over  the  old  bird  came 
back  and  unhooked  the  leaf,  and  the  nest  was  perfect- 
ly dry."  An  English  writer  tells  the  following 
story:  "Among  the  members  of  a  certain  family 
was  an  old  lady  who  was  somewhat  afraid  of  the 
dog  belonging  to  the  household.  She  was  very 
fond  of  a  particularly  comfortable  chair,  but  fre- 
quently found  the  dog  in  possession  of  her  favorite 


78  BEFORE   THE   LOST  ARTS. 

seat.  Being  timid  about  driving  him  off,  she  would 
go  to  the  window  and  call  '  Cats  !  '  Of  course  the 
dog  would  rush  to  the  window  and  bark,  and  the 
lady  would  secure  her  seat.  One  day  the  dog  en- 
tered the  room,  and  finding  the  chair  occupied,  he 
ran  to  the  window  and  barked  furiously.  The  old 
lady  went  to  see  what  caused  the  excitement,  and 
instantly  the  dog  darted  into  the  chair  which  she 
vacated." 

Mr.  Darwin  has  shown,  in  his  book  on  the  "  Ex- 
pression of  Emotions  in  Men  and  Animals,"  that 
there  are  germs  of  intellectual  if  not  moral  faculties  in 
the  animal  creation.  But  he  has  not  shown  that  any 
animals  have  the  power  of  intelligent  speech,  or  germs 
of  spiritual  life,  or  capacity  for  progress  as  species. 
Mr.  Hornady,  in  his  new  book  on  India,  remarks  : 
*'  We  will  not  say  anything  about  the  place  the 
orang  has  in  the  long  chain  of  evolution  ;  but  while 
abstract  argument  leads  hither  and  thither,  according 
as  this  or  that  writer  is  most  ably  gifted  for  the 
same,  there  is  still  one  argument  or  influence  to 
which  every  true  naturalist  is  amenable,  and  which 
no  one  will  ignore  who  has  studied  from  nature  any 
group  of  typical  forms.  Let  such  a  one  (if,  indeed, 
one  exists  to-day)  who  is  prejudiced  against  the  Dar- 
winian views  go  to  Borneo  ;  let  him  there  watch 
from  day  to  day  this  strangely  human  form  in  all  its 
various  phases  of  existence  ;  let  him  see  the  orang 
climb,  walk,  build  its  nest,  eat,  drink,  and  fight  like 
a  human  rough  ;  let  him  see  the  female  suckle  her 
young,  and  carry  it  astride  her  hip,  precisely  as  do 
the  cooley  women  of  Hindustan  ;  let  him  witness 
their  human-like  emotions  of  affection,  satisfaction, 
pain,  and  rage — let  him  see  all  this,  and  then  he 
may  feel  how  much  more  potent  has  been  this  lesson 


TRANSFIGURED    FLESH.  79 

than  all  he  has  read  in  pages  of  abstract  ratiocina- 
tion." But  all  this  will  not  convince  the  naturalist 
who  notes  that  the  orang  is  not  capable  of  self-im- 
provement as  a  race,  and  cannot  be  taught  either  in- 
telligent speech  or  worship. 

TJicre  is  no  human  tribe  ivitJwiit  intelligent  speech  and 
sonic  form  of  worship,  none  without  capacity  for  Chris- 
tianity and  self  improvo^ient ;  while,  on  the  otJier  Jiand, 
there  is  no  animal  which  worships,  nor  is  there  any 
species  of  animals  capable  of  intelligent  speech  or  of 
self-improvement.  Lions  are  the  same  in  every  age. 
TJie  human  species  alone  is  capable  of  self  advancement. 

Almost  everything  else  which  we  praise— monog- 
amy, affection,  courage,  self-sacrifice,  pity,  gener- 
osity, gratitude,  sagacity— man  possesses  in  common 
with  the  noblest  animals  ;  but  nowhere  among  ani- 
mals is  there  self-improvement  or  intelligent  speech 
or  the  slightest  hint  of  worship— ^\\2it  is,  faith  in  the 
invisible  God  and  the  invisible  world,  which  is  no- 
where absent  from  the  tribes  of  men. 

He  who    does    not    worship    God,    however 

NOBLE  IN  other  RESPECTS,  IS  LIVING  A  LIFE  BUT 
LITTLE  HIGHER  THAN  THE  NOBLEST  ANIMALS.  At 
MOST   HE   ONLY    BELONGS   TO   "  THE   ARISTOCRACY  OF 

animalism/'    We  should  emulate  the  noblest 

BEASTS  IN  COURAGE,  AFFECTION,  AND  FIDELITY,  BUT 
WE  OUGHT  ALSO  TO  EXCEL  THEM,  BY  EXERCISING  OUR 
BH^THRIGHT    PRIVILEGE   OF    PRAYERFUL    COMMUNION 

WITH  God.     "  Men  ought  always  to  pray." 

"  For  what  are  men  better  than  sheep  or  goats 
That  nourish  a  bhnd  hfe  withm  the  brain, 
If,  knowing  God,  they  lift  not  hands  of  prayer, 
Both  for  themselves  and  those  who  call  them  friend  ! 
For  so  the  whole  round  earth  is  every  way 
Bound  by  gold  chains  about  the  feet  of  God." 

Tennyson,  Idyls  of  the  King. 


IV. 

CHRISTIANITY   A   SCIENCE,    NOT  A   DREAM. 

§  8.  The  topic  of  this  lecture  was  suggested  by 
the  following  words  in  a  letter  from  a  candid  skep- 
tic :  "I  was  born  and  brought  up  in  a  family  con- 
nected with  the  Orthodox  Church.  My  wife,  too, 
is  a  member  of  it,  and  I  go  with  her  on  Sundays.  I 
do  it  more  from  habit  than  because  I  get  any  good. 
It  would  be  a  real  comfort  to  me  if  I  could  believe 
what  she  believes.  But  I  cannot  do  it  because  I 
want  to  ;  I  can  only  believe  what  seems  to  me  true, 
and  it  does  not  seem  to  me  that  the  orthodox  ideas 
of  religion  have  much  foundation.  There  is  too 
much  of  fancy  and  imagination  about  them,  instead 
of  substantial  facts.  God  and  heaven,  especially 
God  living  on  earth  in  the  flesh,  seems  to  me  like 
beautiful  dreams." 

We  answer,  Christianity  is  a  science,  not  a  dream. 

What,  then,  is  science  ?  Professor  Youmans,  one 
of  its  chief  priests,  when  editor  of  the  Popular  Science 
Monthly,  gave  this  definition  :  "  Science  is  exact 
knowledge,  obtained  by  demonstration,  observation, 
or  experiment." 

This  definition  ought  to  be  kept  ever  in  mind,  for 
nothing  is  more  frequently  counterfeited  than  the 
word  "science."  Since  the  days  when  the  Bible 
was  written,  there  has  always  been  "  science,  falsely 
so  called."  Much  that  is  called  science  is  not  exact 
knowledge,    but    only    partial    knowledge — that   is, 


CHRISTIANITY    A    SCIENCE,    NOT   A    DREAM.        8 1 

"  disturbed  ignorance."  In  our  National  Treasury 
at  Washington,  numerous  clerks  count  the  torn  and 
worn-out  greenbacks  that  have  been  forwarded  for 
redemption.  The  clerks  become  so  expert  that  they 
can  detect  a  counterfeit  by  a  glance  or  touch,  and 
when  one  is  found,  it  is  at  once  thrown  out  and  de- 
ducted from  the  account  of  the  sender.  So  in  read- 
ing an^  hearing  statements  about  scientific  matters, 
one  should  be  ever  on  the  watch  for  the  "  counter- 
feits" that  abound — the  plausible  speculations  and 
unproved  hypotheses  that  may  have  been  falsely 
passed  off  as  "  science."  Hypotheses  are  legitimate 
tools  by  which  to  construct  and  test  science,  but 
they  are  no  more  to  be  called  "  science"  than  the 
presses  that  print  our  greenbacks  are  to  be  called 
"  currency."  It  should  also  be  noted  here  that  as 
the  clerks  who  count  and  examine  the  currency  do  not 
need  to  be  paper-makers  or  printers  or  engravers  in 
order  to  detect  counterfeits,  so  one  need  not  be  a 
scientist  to  know  whether  a  scientific  statement  is  logi- 
cal or  not — whether  its  facts  are  well  attested  and 
its  conclusions  logical. 

A  certain  man  looked  over  his  commercial  paper 
and  divided  it  into  three  bunches,  marked  "  B"  for 
bad,  "  D"  for  doubtful,  and  "  G"  for  good — an 
excellent  system  for  books  as  well  as  banks,  that  no 
"  bad"  or  "  doubtful"  speculations  may  be  counted 
in  our  "  assets"  of  scientific  knowledge.  Christian- 
ity asks  no  exemption  from  the  tests  of  counterfeit 
truth.  It  demands  them.  It  commands  them  : 
"Prove"  [that  is,  tesf\  "all  things:  hold  fast  that 
which  is  good."  Are  the  facts  of  Christianity  well 
attested  ?  Do  its  conclusions  necessarily  follow  ?  Is 
the  **  paper"  of  Christianity  "  B"  or"  D"  or  "  G"  ? 


82  BEFORE   THE    LOST   ARTS. 

We  answer  again,  Christianity  is  a  science,  not  a 
drea7n,  since  it  consists,  in  its  essentials^  of  proved  knowl- 
edge, established,  in  part,  like  lazv  and  history,  upon 
abundant  and  reliable  testimony ;  established,  in  part, 
like  the  scientific  certainties  of  gravitation  and  the  round- 
ness of  the  earth,  npon  a  proved  hypothesis  which  is 
found  to  be  alone  inclusive  of  all  the  facts  and  consistent 
with  all ;  established,  in  part,  like  chemistry  and  medi- 
cine, tipon  repeated  and  thorough  experiments. 

I.  As  to  the  evidences  of  Christianity  in  the  line 
of  testimony,  it  is  well  known  that  the  great  jurist, 
Sir  Matthew  Hale,  declared  that  the  evidence  on 
which  Christianity  bases  its  claims  is  such  as  would 
be  deemed  competent  in  any  court  of  justice.  More 
recently,  Greenleaf,  the  standard  authority  among 
English-speaking  lawyers  on  questions  of  evidence, 
in  his  great  work  on  *  *  The  Testimony  of  the  Four 
Evangelists,"  after  testing  the  Gospels  as  he  would 
test  documentary  evidence  offered  in  a  court,  de- 
clares that  they  are  sufficient  to  establish  as  historic 
the  facts  which  they  allege  in  regard  to  Christ  and 
the  origin  of  Christianity. 

Not  only  the  historic  but  also  the  experimental  ele- 
ments of  Christianity  are  established  upon  abundant 
testimony.  No  crime  was  ever  better  attested  than 
its  opposite  and  preventive — conversion.  A  lawyer 
found  himself  one  night  in  a  meeting  for  Christian 
testimony.  The  subject  was  Conversion.  To  the 
fact  of  it  as  a  personal  experience,  testimony  was 
given  by  a  score  of  his  friends  and  neighbors,  learned 
and  unlearned,  many  of  them  persons  whose  honesty 
and  good  sense  he  had  learned  to  respect,  the  very 
kind  of  witnesses  he  liked  to  have  on  his  side  when 
trying  a  case  in  court.     They  all  declared,  in  vary- 


CHRISTIANITY   A   SCIENCE,   NOT  A   DREAM.         8 


ing  terms,  that  in  answer  to  a  penitent,  trusting  ap- 
peal to  Christ,  a  radical  change  had  occurred  in  their 
springs  of  life.  Their  tastes  as  to  associates,  songs, 
books,  amusements,  had  been  changed  ;  also  their 
consolations,  aims,  activities,  habits.  He  said  to 
himself  :  "  II  any  two  of  these  men  should  testify 
that  1  had  committed  murder  1  should  be  hung. 
Shall  1  reject  all  this  evidence  ?"  He  made  the  only 
answer  that  an  honest  man  can  make  without  self- 
condemnation.  The  conclusive  testimony  demand- 
ed a  decisive  verdict.  He  pronounced  himself 
"  Guilty,"  and  appealed  to  Christ  for  pardon. 

§  9.  But  the  evidences  of  Christianity  in  the  line  of 
testimony  have  been  so  often  and  so  strongly  pre 
sented,  that  I  pass  at  once  into  a  new  field  of  Chris- 
tian evidences,  that  of  proved  hypotheses,  through 
which  many  of  the  most  unquestioned  truths  have 
been  received  into  the  hall  of  science — for  instance, 
gravitation  and  the  roundness  and  revolution  of  the 
earth — to  show  that,  like  these,  Christianity  is  scien- 
tific because  it  presents  a  system  that  includes  all  of 
the  facts  involved  and  harmonizes  all  the  facts. 

How  do  we  know  that  the  earth  is  round  ?  We 
never  saw  its  roundness— nor  felt  it.  To  the  senses 
it  seems  both  flat  and  firm.  But  long  ago  men  no- 
ticed that  a  ship  coming  in  from  sea  showed  to  those 
on  the  land,  first  its  rigging,  and  then  its  hull.  This 
and  other  facts  suggested  that  the  earth  might  be 
round.  The  guess  or  hypothesis  was  tested  and 
found  to  include  and  harmonize  all  the  facts  involved, 
and  so  became,  by  an  accumulation  of  probabilities, 
a  scientific  certainty.  Today  we  know  that  the  earth 
is  round  so  surely  that  the  rantings  of  the  ignorant 


84  BEFORE   THE   LOST   ARTS. 

Richmond  preacher  against  this  doctrine  of  science 
do  not  disturb  us.  Nor  should  the  rantings  of 
Ingersollism  disturb  our  convictions  that  Christ  is 
the  Son  of  God,  and  the  Bible  the  Word  of  God, 
both  of  which  can  be  proved  as  conclusively  as  the 
roundness  and  rotation  of  the  earth  and  by  the  same 
scientific  method. 

So  gravitation  was  at  first  a  guess  and  became  a 
certainty  by  being  proved  to  include  and  harmonize 
all  the  essential  tacts  involved. 

One  may  reach  moral  certainty  m  regard  to  God  as 
well  as  in  regard  to  gravitation  by  an  accumulation  of 
probabilities.  Gladstone,  in  his  famous  paper  on 
**  Probability  as  the  Guide  to  Conduct,"  by  the  very 
title,  which  is  all  one  needs  to  read  to  catch  his  argu- 
ment, suggests  that  in  the  matters  of  home  and  busi- 
ness men  are  guided  not  by  certainties  but  by 
probabilities.  Fathers  provide  food  and  raiment  for 
coming  days,  not  because  there  is  a  certainty  that 
they  and  theirs  will  live  to  need  them,  but  because 
there  is  a  probability  of  it.  The  farmer  sows  be- 
cause of  the  probability  that  his  harvest  will  not  be 
snatched  away  by  drought  or  pest.  By  the  same 
sensible  principle,  if  a  man  deems  it  more  probable 
that  Christianity  is  true  than  false,  he  is  bound  at 
least  to  test  it,  that  probability  may  be  changed  to 
certainty  by  experiment.  It  is  playing  the  quack  on 
one's  self  to  insist  that  every  claim  of  Christianity 
shall  be  proved  as  mathematically  as  that  two  and 
two  make  four,  when  in  almost  everything  proba- 
bility is  the  guide  to  conduct. 

Our  problem  at  this  point,  then,  is,  whether  Chris- 
tianity is  not  probably  true  in  its  essential  claims  as 
to  history  and  experience. 


CHRISTIANITY  A   SCIENCE,    NOT   A   DREAM.         85 

We  are  strongly  assured  by  one  of  the  chief  priests 
of  science  that  there  is  nothing  unscientific  or  self- 
contradictory  or  inconsistent  in  the  main  theory  of 
Christianity.  Professor  Tyndall,  in  the  Popular  Sci- 
ence Monthly,  says  :  '  *  The  theory  that  the  system  of 
nature  is  under  the  control  of  a  Being  who  changes 
phenomena  in  compliance  with  the  prayers  of  men, 
is,  in  my  opinion,  a  perfectly  legitimate  one.  It  is 
a  matter  of  experience  that  an  earthly  father,  who  is 
at  the  same  time  both  wise  and  tender,  listens  to  the 
requests  of  his  children,  and,  if  they  do  not  ask 
amiss,  takes  pleasure  in  granting  their  requests. 
We  know  also  that  this  compliance  extends  to  the 
alteration,  within  certain  limits,  of  the  current  of 
events  on  earth.  With  this  suggestion  offered  by 
our  experience,  it  is  no  departure  from  scientific 
method  to  place  behind  natural  phenomena  a  univer- 
sal Father,  who,  in  answer  to  the  prayers  of  his  chil- 
dren, alters  the  current  of  those  phenomena.  But, 
without  verification,  a  theoretic  conception  is  a  mere 
figment  of  the  intellect." 

There  is,  then,  no  difficulty  in  the  Christian  theory 
of  the  universe,  but  only  in  the  verification  of  the 
theory.  Matthew  Arnold,  in  the  preface  of  his  work 
on  "  Literature  and  Dogma,"  with  as  cool  a  dog- 
matism as  if  he  were  an  infallible  pope  over  all 
knowledge,  utters  the  "  dogma"  that  the  theory  of 
a  personal  and  intelligent  First  Cause  is  untenable, 
because  it  can  never  be  verified.  But  it  can  be  veri- 
fied, and  all  the  other  essential  facts  of  Christianity, 
in  exactly  the  same  way  as  the  facts  of  optics,  as- 
tronomy, and  many  other  theories  of  Science  which 
Mr.  Arnold  and  Professor  Tyndall  fully  accepted,  by 


86  BEFORE   THE   LOST   ARTS. 

showing  that  this  theory  alone  inehides  and  is  consistent 
with  all  the  facts. 

There  is  a  problem  of  far  higher  importance  than 
anything  in  optics  or  astronomy  to  which  I  shall 
apply  this  scientific  method.  It  is  well  stated  in  the 
following  extracts  from  the  letters  of  an  old  school- 
mate :  "  Death  has  taken  my  father,  mother,  and 
sisters  away  since  those  days  of  early  friendship  with 
you,  and  my  life  is  mostly  made  up  of  this  weari- 
some repetition  of  commonplaces.  I  wonder  some- 
times what  all  this  glittering,  shiny  pageant,  which 
we  call  life,  may  mean  ;  what  is  the  key  to  it  all  ? 
How  shall  I  find  the  meaning  of  this  ever-recurring 
I,  and  all  its  relations  to  the  infinite  universe  about 
me?" 

Mr.  Huxley  expresses  the  problem  in  these  earnest 
words  :  "  The  question  of  questions  for  mankind — 
the  problem  which  underlies  all  others,  and  is  more 
interesting  than  any  other — is  the  ascertainment  of 
the  place  which  man  occupies  in  nature,  and  of  his 
relation  to  the  universe  of  things."  Many  a  thought- 
ful man  has  felt  that  life  is  an  island  on  which  he  has 
been  left  in  sleep,  with  no  land  in  sight  as  he  looks 
behind  him,  no  land  in  sight  as  he  looks  forward, 
and  no  human  voice  about  him  able  to  answer  the 
questions,  "  Whence  came  I  ?  What  am  I  ?  Whither 
am  I  going  ?" 

How  can  he  solve  this  problem  of  highest  mo- 
ment ?  What  is  "  the  meaning  of  this  ever-recurring 
I,  and  all  its  relations  to  the  infinite  universe  about 
us?" 

The  answer  must  be  a  theory  that  includes  all  the 
facts  involved  and  is  at  the  same  time  consistent 
with  them  all. 


CHRISTIANITY   A   SCIENCE,    NOT   A   DREAM.         8/ 

Let  it  be  remembered  that  there  are  mental  and 
moral  facts  as  well  as  physical  ones,  heart  facts  as 
well  as  "  hard  facts."  Every  man's  common  sense 
tells  him  that  the  word  he  hears  is  no  more  a  fact 
than  the  unheard  thought  that  prompted  it  ;  that  the 
clock  he  sees  is  no  more  a  fact  than  tiine,  which  he 
cannot  see  ;  that  the  hot  stove  which  he  has  felt  is 
no  more  a  fact  than  the  idea  of  cause  which  the  pain 
awakened  in  his  mind.  The  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
is  as  much  a  fact  as  a  labeled  bug,  or  a  stuffed  mon- 
key, or  an  idiot's  brain.  Any  theory  of  the  universe 
which  does  not  include  all  the  facts  involved,  mental 
and  moral  as  well  as  physical,  and  does  not  prove 
itself  consistent  with  them  all,  is,  by  the  very  laws 
of  science,  unworthy  of  acceptance. 

First,  notice  the  answer  which  atheists  make  to 
the  anxious  inquiry  of  the  human  soul.  By  atheism 
I  mean  what  the  word  literally  means,  any  theory 
that  is  without  God,  that  leaves  God  out,  whether  by 
denying  him  or  ignoring  him.  I  am  aware  that  it 
is  now  the  fashion  to  call  atheism  "  agnosticism," 
which  is  usually  nothing  else  but  atheism  under  a  less 
malodorous  name.  When  agnosticism  is  not  atheism 
it  is  his  laz}^  brother.  It  takes  energy  and  courage 
to  defend  a  positive  denial  of  God.  It  is  easier  to 
sit  on  the  fence.  Those  who  are  too  lazy  or  too 
timid  to  deny  the  existence  of  God  have  borrowed 
the  trick  of  sharpers  in  the  courts,  and  say  to  all  re- 
ligious questions,  "  I  don't  know."  No  one  has  any 
right  to  say  that  of  any  important  matter  until  he 
has  earnestly  tried  to  knoiv.  I  do  not  count  as  agnos- 
tics those  who,  like  Thomas,  are  seeking  to  know 
what  is  truth. 

Atheism  gives  an  answer  to  the  problem  of  man's 


««  BEFORE   THE   LOST  ARTS. 

relation  to  the  universe  as  superficial  as  the  Ptolemaic 
answer  to  the  problem  of  the  earth's  relations. 
Ptolemy,  judging  by  the  mere  appearance  of  things 
to  the  senses,  considered  the  earth  as  the  greatest 
body  in  the  universe,  the  stable  center  of  all  things, 
and  took  no  account  whatever  of  the  unseen  force  of 
gravitation.  So  the  atheist,  looking  only  at  the  seen 
and  temporal,  makes  man  the  highest  JDeing  in  the 
universe,  and  selfishness  the  highest  motive,  and 
takes  no  account  whatever  of  the  unseen  spiritual 
forces  at  work  in  the  world,  such  as  Providence  and 
prayer  and  self-sacrifice. 

These  godless  theories  in  regard  to  man  and  his 
relations  to  the  universe  are  not  scientific  ;  first,  be- 
cause they  ignore  a  large  proportion  of  the  facts. 
Tyndall,  in  his  famous  Belfast  Address,  confessed 
that  there  was  a  class  of  facts  which  his  materialism 
had  not  included  in  its  theories — "  The  unquench- 
able claims  of  man's  emotional  nature."  The  human 
race  will  never  be  satisfied  with  any  answer  to  its 
grandest  problem,  any  theory  of  the  universe  and 
its  relations  to  man,  which  does  not  include  and  is 
not  consistent  with  this  class  of  facts,  which  are  as 
universal  as  humanity,  and  as  deep  as  human  thought 
— "  The  unquenchable  claims  of  man's  emotional  na- 
ture." ' 

The  theories  of  atheism  also  fail  to  include  or  ex- 

^  Since  the  above  was  written,  Benjamin  Kidd,  in  his  book  on 
"  Social  Evolution,"  which  discusses  both  evolution  and  pohtical 
economy,  ha?  shown  how  specialists  in  both  of  those  studies  have  cast 
aside  scientific  method  when  they  have  ignored  Christianity,  which 
is  clearly  the  highest  product  of  evolution.  More  recently  Presi- 
dent Schurman,_of  Cornell  University,  and  Professor  N.  S.  Shaler, 
of  Harvard  University,  in  articles  already  referred  to,  have  em- 
phasized the  same  truth,  and  whatever  view  of  evolution  one  holds, 
"  the  essentials  of  the  Christian  religion"  are  unquestionably  its 
highest  development,  "  the  greatest  thing  in  the  world." 


CHRISTIANITY   A   SCIENCE,    NOT  A   DREAM.         89 

plain  the  fact  that  thoughts  of  immortality  have  a 
place  in  every  human  mind,  either  as  a  faith,  a  tradi- 
tion, or  a  question. 

Especially  must  a  satisfactory  theory  of  the  uni- 
verse explain  the  origin  of  matter,  life,  and  mind.' 
But  atheism  offers  no  explanation.  Tyndall  and  Pas- 
teur speak  for  the  world  of  science  when  they  deny 
that  there  is  the  slightest  evidence  of  "  spontaneous 
generation,"  or  of  life  except  as  "an  emanation  of 
antecedent  life."  Huxley  long  since  admitted  that 
his  "  bathydius"  protoplasm,  which  he  hoped  would 
prove  to  be  the  jelly-mothei  of  all  life,  is  only  inor- 
ganic gypsum — the  same  material  as  the  Cardiff 
Giant  hoax.  Atheism  leaves  us  no  way  to  get  an 
existence.  And  yet  we  exist.  No  fact  is  more  vital 
in  a  theory  of  the  universe  than  life,  and  no  theory 
that  fails  to  explain  such  a  fact  is  scientifically  satis 
factory. 

The  theories  of  atheism  are  unscientific  because, 
second,  they  are  inconsistent  with  many  facts.  Five 
expressions  distinguish  man  as  man  everywhere. 
He  can  say,  "  I  am,"  "  1  can,"  "  I  ought,"  "  I  will," 
"  I  pray."  As  being  corresponds  to  the  words  "  I 
am,"  and  power  to  "  I  can,"  and  conscience  to  "  I 
ought,"  and  freedom  of  choice  to  the  words  "  I 
will,"  so  God  must  correspond  to  the  words  "  I 
pray,"  by  the  very  laws  of  science,  which  allow  in 

2  Mr.  A.  R.  Wallace,  who  is  a  co  discoverer  with  Mr.  Darwin 
and  an  equal  authority  with  him,  insists  that  in  the  development 
of  the  organic  world  there  are  at  least  three  distinct  stages  where 
we  must  of  necessity  admit  that  some  new  force  has  come  into 
action — one,  the  change  from  inorganic  to  organic  matter  ;  a  sec- 
ond, the  transition  from  the  vegetable  to  the  animal  kingdom,  and 
the  third,  the  existence  of  the  faculties  which  distinguish  man  from 
the  brutes.  These  stages  of  progress,  Wallace  declares,  "  point 
clearly  to  an  unseen  universe,  to  a  world  of  spirit  to  which  the 
world  of  matter  is  altogether  subordinate." 


90  BEFORE   THE   LOST   ARTS. 

nature  no  universal  instinct  without  an  adequate  an- 
swer, no  half- hinges.  The  theory  of  atheism  is  also 
inconsistent  with  the  scientific  fact  that  in  universal 
experience,  plan,  adaptation,  purpose,  law,  order, 
progress,  are  found  to  be  the  result  of  personality 
and  intelligence.  Nor  is  the  theory  of  atheism  con- 
sistent with  the  facts  of  present  experience  in  ascrib- 
ing to  matter  "  the  power  and  potency  of  every 
form  of  life."  The  fairy  stories  that  make  flowers 
talk,  and  magic  axes  cut  down  whole  forests  with  no 
hand  to  wield  them  ;  and  the  mythologies  of  heathen- 
ism  that  tell  of  matter  in  images  of  wood  and  stone 
thinking  and  acting  as  gods,  are  not  one  whit  less 
scientific  than  the  theories  of  atheism  that  make  the 
hot  and  lifeless  atoms  of  primeval  fog,  the  builders 
of  the  present  world  of  matter  and  mind. 

It  is  scientifically  certain,  then,  that  the  theories 
of  the  universe  which  deny  or  ignore  God  have  not 
sufficient  credentials  to  take  their  contested  seats  in 
the  congress  of  science,  since  they  neither  include 
nor  harmonize  all  the  facts  involved. 

The  problem  of  the  "  ever-recurring  I,  in  its  rela- 
tions to  the  universe,"  is  answered  but  little  better 
by  un-Christian  theism.  No  hypothesis  of  the  uni- 
verse, even  though  it  recognizes  the  existence  of 
God,  that  does  not  include  and  harmonize  the  four 
large  groups  of  well-attested  facts  in  regard  to 
Providence  and  prayer,  the  Bible  and  Christ,  can 
be  considered  a  scientific  theory  of  man  and  his  re- 
lations. 

From  these  theories  that  fail  to  answer  the  prob- 
lem of  the  universe,  we  turn  to  one  that  succeeds. 
As  gravitation  included  and  explained  all  the  essen- 


CHRISTIANITY   A   SCIENXE,    NOT   A    DREAM.         9I 

tial  facts  in  regard  to  the  movements  ol  the  heaven- 
ly bodies,  so  Christianity  alone  offers  a  theory  of 
man's  relations  that  includes  and  explains  all  the 
facts  involved.  In  the  words  of  Napoleon,  "  The 
Bible  contains  a  complete  series  of  facts  and  of  his- 
torical men  to  explain  time  and  eternity."  No  other 
theory  tells  us  how  the  world  of  nature  began,  or 
how  it  will  end.  No  other  theory  explains  the  evi- 
dences of  a  controlling  mind  in  the  order  and  prog- 
ress of  nature  and  history.  No  other  theory  gives  a 
reasonable  explanation  of  the  fact  that  a  poor,  un- 
educated carpenter  of  Nazareth,  who  died  as  a  male- 
factor almost  1900  years  ago,  is  the  best  known,  the 
most  beloved,  the  most  obeyed  of  any  being  that 
ever  lived  in  flesh.  No  other  theory  explains  why  the 
Bible  alone  of  ancient  books  is  the  book  of  the  people 
to-day,  the  King-Book  in  the  literature  of  power. 

In  the  Palace  of  Justice  at  Rome,  they  take  the 
traveler  into  a  chamber  with  strangely  painted  fres- 
coes on  the  ceiling  and  around  the  walls,  and  strange 
mosaics  upon  the  floor.  He  cannot  reduce  them  to 
harmony.  It  is  all  a  bewildering  maze.  But  there 
is  one  spot  upon  the  floor  of  that  room,  standing 
upon  which  everything  falls  into  symmeti"y.  He  can 
see  at  that  point,  and  that  only,  the  design  of  the 
artist  and  the  beauty  of  his  work.  So  the  world 
seems  a  chaos  of  sorrow  and  sin  from  every  point 
except  one.  From  any  other  standpoint  life  is  not 
worth  living.  But  when  one  stands  beside  the 
Cross,  with  the  Bible  in  hand,  he  can  see  that 
through  all  the  convulsions  of  nature  and  history 

"  One  eternal  purpose  runs, 
And  the  thoughts  of  God  are  ripening 
With  the  progress  of  the  suns. ' ' 


92  BEFORE   THE    LOST  ARTS. 

§  10.  The  evidences  of  Christianity  in  the  line  of 
testimony  and  proved  hypothesis  are  sufificient  at 
least  to  show  that  Christianity  is  more  probably  true 
than  false.  That  is  all  that  one  who  is  daily  making 
probability  his  guide  to  conduct  has  a  right  to  ask 
as  a  reason  for  going  forward  to  the  third  and  most 
conclusive  department  of  Christian  evidence,  that  of 
experiment,  in  which  probability  is  changed  to  cer- 
tainty. We  have  seen  that  the  religion  of  Christ, 
when  it  is  compared  with  history  and  law  and  other 
departments  of  science  that  are  based  on  testimony, 
vindicates  its  right  to  be  also  considered  a  part  of 
science,  by  showing  abundant  and  reliable  testimony 
as  the  basis  of  its  claims.  We  have  also  seen  that 
Christianity,  when  it  is  compared  with  any  depart- 
ment of  science  which  is  based  on  a  proved  hypothesis, 
again  establishes  its  claim  to  be  counted  a  part  of 
science  by  presenting  a  theory  of  the  universe  that 
includes,  explains,  and  harmonizes  all  the  facts  in- 
volved. 

Comparing  Christianity  with  those  branches  of 
science,  such  as  chemistry  and  medicine,  that  are 
chiefly  based  on  careful,  thorough  and  repeated  ex- 
periments and  tests,  we  shall  see  that  by  the  proof  of 
tests  and  experiments  also,  Christianity  is  a  science, 
not  a  dream.  Science  ascertained  thus  by  personal 
experiments  is  considered  somewhat  more  certain 
than  that  which  comes  from  reliable  testimony  or 
proved  hypotheses.  Absolutely  certain  knowledge 
in  this  matter  of  religion  can  only  be  secured  by  add- 
ing to  reliable  testimony  and  proved  hypotheses  a 
personal  experience  of  the  reality  of  conversion  and 
the  power  of  prayer.     The  most  important  elements 


CHRISTIANITY   A   SCIENCE,    NOT   A   DREAM.         93 

of  Christianity  are  not  theories  but  experience,  and 
therefore  the  final  test  of  it  must  be  a  personal  ex- 
periment of  its  power.  Error  can  debate,  but  truth 
alone  can  bear  tests  and  experiments.  Reasoning 
is  a  long-  route  to  conclusions,  that  even  then  are  not 
absolutely  certain.  Experiment  is  the  short  cut  to 
truth,  and  much  the  surest  path  when  the  object  can 
thus  be  reached.  Hence  the  religion  of  Christ  has 
grown  by  the  condensed  logic  of  tests  or  **  experi- 
ence" more  than  b}^  spoken  arguments.  It  is  to  this 
department  of  evidence  especially  that  the  command 
applies,  "  Prove  all  things,"  which  does  not  mean 
that  we  are  to  argue  about  everything,  but  rather, 
"  Test  all  things."  Experience  comes  from  experior, 
meaning  to  make  trial  of,  to  put  to  the  test.  Some 
one  asked  Coleridge  if  he  could  prove  the  truth  of 
Christianity.  "Yes,"  said  he,  ''try  it."  Philip's 
answer  to  Nathaniel's  doubt  whether  the  Messiah 
could  come  out  of  Nazareth  was  almost  as  brief — 
"Come  and  see."  He  might  have  argued  that 
Christ  was  not  originally  of  Nazareth  but  of  Bethle- 
hem, but  some  new  difficulty  would  then  have  arisen, 
and  hours  or  days  or  perhaps  weeks  would  have 
been  lost  in  debates.  He  led  his  friend  rather  along 
the  short  cut  of  experiment.  A  moment  with  Christ 
cured  Nathaniel's  doubts,  and  he  exclaimed,  "  Thou 
art  the  Son  of  God,  thou  art  the  King  of  Israel." 

If  a  scientific  professor  should  say  to  his  class  that 
he  could  change  a  bottle  of  a  certain  black  liquid 
into  snowy  whiteness  by  pouring  into  it  a  scarlet 
fluid,  and  a  score  of  witnesses  should  corroborate 
his  testimony,  his  hearers  might  believe  it.  This 
belief  might  be  strengthened  if  he  could  philosophize 
clearly  on  the  characteristics  and  relations  of  the  two 


94  BEFORE  THE  LOST  ARTS. 

liquids.  But  they  would  more  quickly  reach  cer- 
tainty by  taking  the  two  bottles  into  their  own  hands, 
to  prevent  any  chance  of  jugglery,  and  performing 
the  experiment  for  themselves."  So  in  the  Divine 
chemistry  of  conversion,  one  reaches  the  certainty 
that  the  black  heart  of  sin  may  be  changed  by  the 
blood  of  Christ  into  the  snowy  whiteness  of  purity 
and  joy,  when  to  Christian  testimony  and  Christian 
philosophy  he  adds  personal  experience.  If  Chris- 
tianity is  a  matter  of  such  moment  as  to  be  worthy 
of  volumes  of  reasoning  ;  if  it  involves  issues  of  life 
and  death,  of  happiness  and  misery  ;  if  its  truth  or 
falseness  is  an  important  matter  for  each  individual 
to  decide,  as  the  world's  wisest  men  have  generally 
believed,  then  surely,  it  ought  to  be  fully  tested  by 
every  rational  being  who  has  heard  of  its  claims. 

If  there  is  a  God  personally  interested  in  man,  it 
would  be  natural  for  him  to  give  a  written  revela- 
tion of  his  will  for  all  the  ages.  How  can  one  know 
that  the  Bible  is  such  a  revelation  ?  By  doing  God's 
will  as  there  asserted.  An  aged  Christian  had  a 
great  many  passages  in  her  Bible  marked  "  T"  and 
"P."  She  was  asked  what  these  letters  signified. 
She  said  they  marked  the  promises  of  God  that  she 
herself  had  tried  and  proved.  Here,  then,  is  a  method 
of  testing  the  Bible,  more  direct  than  by  examining 
its  historical  and  scientific  accuracy  and  the  fulfiU- 

3  To  change  a  black  solution  to  a  white  one  by  means  of  a  red 
solution,  take  two  glasses,  each  half  full  of  distilled  or  very  clear 
water,  and  add  to  one  the  following:  Thio  sulphate  of  soda,  5 
grains  ;  tincture  of  nut  gall,  10  drops  :  tincture  chloride  of  iron, 
5  drops.  This  will  form  a  black  solution.  If  not  quite  black 
enough,  add  a  little  more  tincture  chloride  of  iron.  In  the  second 
glass  place  the  following:  hydrochloric  acid,  15  drops;  perman- 
ganate of  potash,  \  grain.  This  forms  a  purple  red  solution,  sug- 
gesting royal  blood.  Pour  the  red  solution  into  the  black  one,  and 
all  the  color  will  disappear,  leaving  the  water  as  clear  as  at  first. 


ment  of  its  prophecies.  Man}^  of  the  promises  of 
God  are  personal  prophecies  whose  truth  can  be 
readily  tested.  It  is  fair,  then,  to  make  this  chal- 
lenge to  the  skeptic  :  Live  according  to  the  precepts 
of  the  Bible  for  a  year,  and  observe  whether  such 
living  tends  to  make  you  nobler  and  happier,  or 
baser  and  more  miserable.  Thus  you  may  surely 
know  by  its  fruits  whether  it  is  truth  or  deception. 

If  there  is  a  God  personally  interested  in  us,  there 
would  naturally  be  provided  not  only  a  written  reve- 
lation of  his  will  but  also  a  means  of  daily  communi- 
cation between  him  and  our  hearts,  for  the  expres- 
sion of  adoration,  penitence,  praise,  petition,  and 
self-surrender,  the  five  elements  of  prayer.  In  the 
words  of  Joseph  Cook  we  may  therefore  say  to  the 
skeptic  :  "  I  don't  ask  whether  3^ou  believe  what  I 
believe.  You  believe  something.  There  are  a  few 
religious  propositions  which  appear  to  you  to  be  in- 
controvertible. Will  yo2i  take  these  and  submit  to  tJiem 
in  your  places  of  business,  in  your  places  of  secret  tempta- 
tion, iii  your  family,  in  your  thoughts,  in  your  imagina- 
tion ?  Will  3^ou  yield  gladly  to  your  conscience  as 
illuminated  by  the  best  you  know  of  God's  Word 
and  works.  Will  you  take  all  the  light  yoju 
HAVE  AND  SURRENDER  TO  IT,  and  all  the  Other  light 
you  get  by  self-surrender — the  most  vital  part  of 
prayer?  If  so,  you  will  have  probably  new  views 
of  prayer  before  tomorrow  morning." 

An  infidel  physician  in  Pennsylvania,  who  had 
been  startled  into  unusual  thoughtfulness  by  the 
sudden  death  of  a  friend,  resolved  to  give  the  ques- 
tion of  prayer  a  fair,  full  personal  test.  As  he  read 
the  Bible  for  light,  the  words  of  James  especially 
impressed  him,  "  If  any  of  you  lack  wisdom,  let  him 


96  BEFORE   THE   LOST  ARTS. 

ask  of  God  that  giveth  to  all  men  liberally  and  up- 
braideth  not."  He  knelt  down  to  pray  in  the  soli- 
tude of  his  own  chamber,  and  by  an  earnest  and  hon- 
est test  found  that  prayer,  at  which  he  had  formerly 
sneered,  was  indeed  a  power  in  the  universe,  and 
especially  in  his  soul.  By  experiment  he  had  ex- 
changed a  tormenting  "perhaps"  for  an  assuring 
"  verily."  He  became  the  eloquent  Bishop  Thomp- 
son, of  the  Methodist  Church. 

Only  a  few  centuries  ago  the  scholarship  of  Europe 
doubted  the  very  existence  of  this  continent.  It  was 
thousrht  to  be  a  mere  dream  of  Columbus.  But  Co- 
lumbus  had  testimony  of  mariners  driven  by  storms 
far  to  the  West,  who  had  seen  land  birds  and  fresh 
branches.  The  only  theory  that  would  include  and 
harmonize  these  facts  was  the  theory  of  another  con- 
tinent. The  probability  thus  suggested  was  at  last 
by  experiment  changed  to  certainty.  Long  after 
America's  existence  had  been  proved,  the  possibility 
of  receiving  anything  from  it,  or  sending  anything 
to  it  by  steamboats,  was  doubted  by  many  learned 
men.  "Is  there  a  Western  continent?"  "Can 
steamers  carry  messages  to  it,  and  bring  back  an- 
swers and  goods?"  These  questions  were  both  an- 
swered affirmatively,  after  much  useless  argument, 
by  experiment. 

"  Is  there  a  God  in  Heaven  ?"  "  Can  we  hold  in- 
tercourse with  him  by  Bible  reading  and  prayer?" 
These  questions,  to  which  skeptics  sneer  back  their 
theoretic  "  No,"  multitudes  of  Christians  have  an- 
swered for  themselves,  by  experiment,  as  all  others 
might  do,  with  a  mighty  "  Yes." 


Tuis  book  is  one  of  a  series  of  four  volumes  on  the  Kingship  of 
Christ,  each  volume  of  which  is  complete  in  itself,  though  connected 
with  the  series.     The  full  series  is  as  follows  : 

ECCE  REX  VESTER  ;  OR,  THE  KINGSHIP  OF 
CHRIST  IN  NATURE,  SCRIPTURE,  HISTORY 
AND  REFORMS. 

Vol.  I.  BEFORE  THE  LOST  ARTS  ;  OR,  CHRIST  IN  THE 
OLDEST  TESTAMENT  OF  NATURE. 

Before  the  Lost  Arts. 

Creatorship  of  Christ. 

Transfigured  Flesh. 

Christianity  a  Science,  not  a  Dream. 
Vol.  II.  CHRIST  IN  ALL  THE  SCRIPTURES. 

1.  Christ  in  the  Old  Testament. 

Christ's  Testimony  to  the  Old  Testament. 

The  Old  Testament's  Testimony  to  Christ. 

Visits  and  Visions  of  the  King  in  Old  Testament  Times. 

Development  of  the  Old  Testament  Gospel. 

2.  Christ  in  the  New  Testament. 

Its  Two  Levels  of  Life. 
Paul's  the  Earliest  Gospel. 
The  Four  Evangelists. 

Comprehensive  View  of  Christ's  Earthly  Life. 
Christ  as  Savior  and  King. 
Life  of  Christ  since  the  Ascension. 
Vol.  III.  SOCIAL  PROGRESS  ;  OR,  CHRIST  IN  THE  NEW- 
EST   TESTAMENT    OF    POST-BIBLICAL    HIS- 
TORY. 
The  Good  Old  Times. 
The  Better  New  Times. 
The  Best  Time  Coming. 
(This  third  volume  will  be  a  concise  treatment  of  both  static  and 
dynamic  sociology.) 

Vol.  IV.  BIBLICAL   LIFE    OF    CHRIST  :  A   CONSOLIDAT- 
ED,   CHRONOLOGICAL,    BIBLICAL    LIFE    OF 
CHRIST.  FROM   BEFORE  CREATION  TO  THE 
SECOND  COMING  AND  BEYOND. 
Part  First.       Christ  before  and  at  Creation. 
Part  Second.  Visits  and  Visions  of  Christ  between  the  Creation 

and  the  Incarnation, 
Part  Third.     Christ's  Life  on  Earth,  Consolidated  and  Chronologi- 
cally Arranged  from  both  Testaments. 
Part  Fourth.  Christ's  Life   and  Work  in   Heaven  and  on  Earth 
since  the  Ascension. 
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NEIV  8ih  EDITION,  67  2  p^ 

THE  SABBATH  FOR  MAN 

With  Special  Reference  to  the  Rights  of   Workingmen 

Bj'  TiEy.   M/IL^UR  F.   CTiAFTS,  Ph.D. 


The  following  are  specimen  opinions  : 

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Miss  Frances  E.  Willard :  "The  book  outranks  all  others  on  this  vital 
theme." 

President  Angell,  of  Michigan  University  :  "•  It  contains  the  most  valu- 
able collection  of  facts  concerning  the  methods  of  observing  the  Lord's  Day 
which  I  have  seen.' 

W.  M.  F.  Roimd.,  National  Prison  Association  :  "  It  sums  up  all  that  is 
worth  keeping  in  previous  discussions." 

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on  the  Sabbath  as  a  practical  question." 

National  Te?nperance  Advocate :  "  It  is  the  most  important  recent  con- 
tribution to  the  literature  of  Sabbath  observance." 

Dr.  John  M.  Ferris.,  Editor  of  Intelligencer :  It  is  the  book  in  defence 
and  advocacy  of  the  Lord's  Day," 

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of  the  Sabbath  Question,'  in  two  volumes,  is  an  almost  exhaustive  presenta- 
tion of  the  history  of  opinion,  and  of  the  literature  of  the  past,  on  the  great 
question  of  Sabbath  Observance,  so  this  book  of  Mr.  Crafts  is  unique  as  a 
repertory  of  infoi-mation  as  to  the  present  state  of  Sabbath  opinion  and 
observance  over  the  nominally  Christian  world.  The  information  has  been 
collected  by  a  stupendous  correspondence  with  representative  men  residing 
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tained.   The  book  is  exceedinglj' valuable,  and  is  strongly  on  the  right  side.'' 

BRITISH  OPINIONS. 

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Specimen  Pages  from  Second  Edition. 


PRACTICAL 

CHRISTIAN  SOCIOLOGY 

A   SERIES  OF 

SPECIAL  LECTURES-  BEFORE 

PRINCETON  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 

AND  MARIETTA  COLLEGE 

WITH  SUPPLEMENTAL  NOTES  AND  APPENDIXES 

BY 

REV.  WILBUR  F.  CRAFTS,  Ph.  D. 

Superintendent  National  Bureau  of  Reforms, 

Author  of  ^'•The  Sabbath  for  Man''    '•'The  Civil  Sabbath''   '■''The   Temperance 

Century^''  *^^  Successful  Men  of  To-day,"  '•'•Reading  the  Bible  with  Relish,"  etc. 

WITH   AN   INTRODUCTION   BY 

JOSEPH    COOK,    LL.    D. 


All  are  needed  by  each  one, 
Nothing  is  fair  or  good  alone. 

—Emerson  :     All  a nd  Each 


SECOND  EDITION 
NEW  YORK 

FUNK  &  WAGNALLS   COMPANY 

LONDON  AND  TORONTO 
1896 


2?Q3 


FULL  ORBED  CHRISTIANITY 


God  Man 


HeXven  Humanixy^^^ 

/    -^^     THEOLOGV       S0CI0LOX3Y    , 

/  </ Love  TO  God  Love  To  Man 

Divine  Fatherhood  Human  Brotherhood  y< 

DoctrinalStandards  EthicalStandards- 

Justification ByJa'ith  JusticeTo Employesv^ 

TheMinistersSagredDeskTheMerchantsSacred.Deski 

TheSalvationOfIndividuals  The  Regeneration ofSociety 

TheSaviorship  Of  Jesus    TheKingship  of  Christ 

The^Glory  of  God  TheKngdom.of  God 

Gifts  To  Charities    GiftstoReeorms 

Heart  Worship      Divine    SE;RyicE 

The  Lords  Day    Anno  Domini 

PrayerfulPiety  Philanthropy 

^  V    ^      \  Look  Up         __..  . 

V.'  \  Save  Men    Save  Man 

Vows 

Me 


INTRODUCTION. 


Much  of  what  the  author  says 
in  this  book  is  of  the  nature  of 
expert  testimony,  the  value  of 
which  is  enhanced  by  the  history 
of  the  witness.  He  is  wont  to  say 
that  he  was  born  a  twin  of  the 
Maine  law,  in  the  same  State,  in 
the  same  year,  and  almost  of  the 
same  father.  Mr.  Crafts'  father, 
a  preacher,  was  the  writer  of  one 
of  the  rallying  songs  of  Neal 
Dow's  first  campaign,  and  also  a 
fearless  opponent  of  slavery,  not- 
withstanding the  withdrawal  of 
support  by  proslavery  parishion- 
ers. Our  author  was,  therefore,  a 
reformer  born,  rich  in  an  inh'ir- 
itance  of  moral  heroism  received 
through  heredity  and  early  training 
and  the  environment  of  a  State  in 
which,  in  all  his  childhood,  he  saw 
neither  saloon  nor  drunkard. 
When  politics  first  came  into  our  author's  life  as  an  influence,  in  the 
days  of  Fremont  and  John  Brown,  national  issues  were  not  questions  of 
commerce  but  of  conscience.  The  conquering  elements  of  politics  then 
boldly  avowed  allegiance  to  the  Decalogue  and  the  Golden  Rule.  It  was 
felt  by  the  most  efficient  reformers  to  be  a  momentous  truth  that  man  can 
neither  make  nor  break  law — though  it  may  break  him.  He  can  only 
translate  the  one  supreme  law  into  its  applications  to  current  affairs. 

Our  author's  first  temperance  lecture  was  delivered  at  fifteen,  when  he 
was  a  sophomore  in  college  and  already  an  active  member  of  temperance 
societies.  At  seventeen,  he  preached  his  first  sermon  from  a  text  that 
has  proved  to  be  the  key-note  of  his  practical  ministry,  "  Faith  without 
works  is  dead."  In  his  earlier  pastorates,  Mr.  Crafts'  unusual  success  in 
his  own  Sunday-school  led  to  his  being  often  called  to  write  and  speak  as 
a  specialist  on  Sunday-school  work,  in  connection  with  Dr.  (now  Bishop) 
J.  H.  Vincent  and  others.  It  was  thus,  in  writing  Throtigk  the  Eye 
to  the  Heart,  his  first  book,  as  joint  author  with  Miss  Sara  J.  Timanus, 
that  he  came  to  form  with  her  a  "  Sunday-school  Union"  for  life.  By 
both  voice  and  pen,  Mrs.  Crafts  has  herself  done  a  remarkable  work  for 


REV.    WILBUR    F.    CRAFTS,    PH.    D. 


AUTHOR'S  INTRODUCTION. 


All  reforms  are  relations.  So  are  vices.  Although  specialists  are 
more  needed  than  ever  before,  one-idea  reforms  belong  to  the  individ- 
ualistic ages  of  the  past.  Steam  and  electricity  have  socialized  the 
world.  Vices  quickly  recognized  this  sign  of  the  times,  and  became 
"  liberty  leagues."     Reforms  more  slowly  formed  "  unions." 

Too  much  is  commonly  claimed  by  the  one-idea  reformer  for  his  pet 
reform.  Social  ills  cannot  all  be  remedied  by  a  single  cure-all,  nor  by  a 
single  doctor,  not  even  by  the  one  whose  sign  we  saw  in  a  Kansas  Ijotel, 
"  Specialist  in  all  chronic  diseases."  Small  and  Vincent's  Introduction 
to  the  Study  of  Society  {y>-  74)  bids  us  remember  that  "  social  improve- 
ment thus  far  has  been  by  cooperation  of  many  ameliorative  forces," 
a  historical  basis  for  the  numerous  reform  movements  which  have  of  late 
adopted  what  foreign  critics  of  the  W.  C,  T.  U.  call  "  the  do-everything 
policy." 

"  It  is  well,"  says  IVie  Interior,  "  that  ideas  of  moral  reform  have 
broadened  out.  They  have  for  an  age  and  a  half  been  limited  to  tem- 
perance. By  broadening  the  platform  and  making  temperance  only  a 
plank  in  it,  temperance  is  greatly  strengthened.  The  gambling  den, 
social  purity,  political  and  civil  morality — each  one  of  these  brings  its 
special  advocates  into  a  common  cause,  and  gives  to  each  line  of  reform 
the  united  strength  of  the  active  forces  of  all  lines.  There  is  no  danger 
that  they  will  fail  to  combine  against  the  saloon — which  antagonizes 
equally  the  progress  of  any  and  every  moral  reform." 

The  forty  departments  of  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  include  the  ripest  one- 
fourth  of  current  reforms.  The  King's  Daughters  are  another  "  do- 
everything"  society.  The  Endeavor  good  citizenship  movement,  the 
programs  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance  conferences,  the  institutional 
churches,  the  university  settlements,  all  aim  at  many  reforms,  not  one 
only. 

Individuals  who  enter  upon  practical  study  of  any  one  reform  usually 
find  themselves  led  into  another  and  another.  Miss  Willard  starts  out  to 
study  temperance,  and  becomes  also  the  special  advocate  of  labor,  of 
purity,  of  all  Christian  reforms  ;  putting  more  statesmanship  in  her  annual 
review  of  public  affairs  than  any  Governor  or  President  dares  to  put  into 
his  annual  message.  So,  again,  Professor  Richard  T.  Ely  starts  to  study 
labor,  and  presently  is  writing  temperance  tracts.  John  Burns  and  Hon. 
T.  V.  Powderly  also  come  to  be  temperance  advocates  through  labor  leader- 
ship. Mrs.  Josephine  Shaw  Lowell  devotes  her  great  talents  to  the  new 
science  of  charity,  and  presently  is  the  Joan  of  Arc  in  the  victorious 
sweaters'  strike. 

In  Chicago  and  New  Orleans  working  men  start  out  to  secure  emanci- 


PRINCETON  LECTURES 


ON 


PRACTICAL  CHRISTIAN  SOCIOLOGY. 


I.   FROM  THE   STANDPOINT   OF  THE  CHURCH. 

§  I.  The  humanitarianism  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
was  not  proclaimed  by  Christ  until  the  second  year  of  his 
ministry.  It  was  preceded,  in  the  first  Christ's  hu- 
year,  by  the  sermon  on  worship  at  Jacob's  manitarianism. 
Well,  and  that  was  preceded  by  the  sermon  to  Nico- 
demus  on  regeneration,  and  that  was  preceded  by  the  proc- 
lamation of  atonement  at  the  very  beginning  of  Christ's 
ministry  in  the  greeting  of  John  the  Baptist,  ''Behold 
the  Lamb  of  God,  that  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world." 
Note  Christ's  order:  atonement,  regeneration,  worship, 
humanitarianism.  We  should  neither  begin  with  humani- 
tarianism nor  end  with  worship. 

The  Christian  development  of  human  individuality  is 
the  spinal  cord  in  the  history  of  civilization;  but  the 
hour  is  come  for  Christian  sociology,  which  is  the  study 
of  society  from  a  Christian  standpoint  with  a  view  to  its 
Christianization.^ 

§  2.   The   heart   of   Christian   sociology   is    the  King- 
ship of  Christ.     The  individual  is  saved  by  his  cross,  but 
society  is  saved  by  his  crown,  that  is,  by      Kingship  of 
the  application  of  the  law  of   Christ  to  all   Christ, 
human  associations— t-o  the  family,  the  school,  the  shop, 
the  Church,  the  state. 


Note.— The  figures  in  the  text  refer  to  notes  in  the  Appendix. 
23 


II.    FROM    THE    STANDPOINT    OF   THE 
FAMILY  AND  EDUCATION. 

I.  The  Family. 

§  I.  Purity  and  home,  both  words  without  meaning 
outside  of  Christian  lands,'  are  respectively  the  root  and 
flower  of  the  family,  which  is  Xh^  primary  social  group,  in 
the  order  both  of  time  and  importance.  It  is  the  fault  of 
much  current  sociological  discussion,  as  of  current  legis- 
lation, that  it  makes  more  of  property  than  of  purity,*^ 
more  of  money  than  of  morals,  and  so  assumes  that  the 
shop  rather  than  the  home  is  the  sociological  point  of 
departure,  and  that  larger  having  rather  than  nobler  being 
is  the  sociological  end.  It  degrades  sociology  to  make 
it  a  mere  extension  of  economics.^ 

§  2.  But  surely  there  is  no  need  to  prove  that  normal 
society  is  an  association  of  families.  The  opening  chap- 
ters of  Genesis  teach  not  only  monotheism  Boarding  Ab- 
but  monogamy.  Society  is  there  shown  to  normal, 
have  originated  in  a  holy  family.  Historically,  nations 
are  but  families  expanded  to  tribes,  headed  by  a  father- 
king.*  One  reason  why  our  modern  cities  are  so  abnormal 
morally  is  that  they  are  abnormal  socially,  being  largely 
composed  of. boarders,  the  fragments  of  broken  families." 
Rev.  Dr.  Charles  H.  Parkhurst,  the  most  illustrious  of 
municipal  reformers,  declares  that  "the  sorest  spot  in 
our  municipal  condition — in  national  also — is  the  de- 
cadence of  the  home  idea."  The  home  has  very  largely 
given  place  to  the  boarding-house,  especially  in  the  case 
of  young  men,  who  so  madly  rush  to  the  cities  at  the 
very  age  of  greatest  moral  peril.     This  causes  the  break 

63 


III.    FROM    THE    STANDPOINT »    OF   CAPITAL 
AND    LABOR.' 

§  I.  The  message  of  the  Church,  when  confronted  with 
the  problems  of  poverty  in  the  past,  has  been,  to  the 
poor,^  Patience  ;  to  the  rich,  Charity.  At  last,  from 
the  standpoint  of  Christianity,  as  well  as  from  that  of 
labor,  we  are  learning  to  write  above  both  words, 

Justice.* 

Here  is  a  point  of  general  agreement,  such  as  should 
be  found  as  common  ground  to  start  upon  together  in 
every  controversy.  That  the  present  industrial  system, 
which  in  its  maturity  is  not  a  competitive  system  but  a 
monopolistic  system,^  works  great  injustice  to  the  poor 
and  to  the  public,  and  that  not  in  rare  exceptions  but  on 
a  large  and  increasing  scale, ^  and  should  therefore  be 
at  least  modified,  will  hardly  be  questioned,  however 
widely  even  good  men  may  differ  as  to  remedies. 

Plato  taught  that  justice  is  moral  health  ;  injustice, 
disease.  The  industrial  sickness  of  the  body  politic  to- 
day is  injustice.  Only  by  justice  can  it  be  cured.  Only 
the  equitable  is  practicable. 

Labor  appeals  for  justice,  not  for  pity.  Many  preachers 
ask  better  wages  for  labor  from  compassion,  on  the  basis 
of  that  misquotation  of  Henry  George,  "The  rich  are 
growing  richer  and  the  poor  are  growing  poorer."'' 
Labor's  real  claim  is  that,  of  the  great  increase  of  wealth 
caused  by  modern  machinery,  labor  has  not  had  its 
fair  share.®  ''The  grievance  point  of  view,"  says  the 
organ  of  the  American  Railway  Union,  ''is  this:  Labor 
is  habitually  wronged  by  the  employer  and  not  sufficiently 


ii6 


PRACTICAL    CHRISTIAN    SOCIOLOGY. 


protected  by  the  state."     Workmen  will  not  be  silenced 
by    statistics    that     show    they    are    paid     more    than 
formerly/  but,    having  learned   the  meaning  of   justice 
from  Christianity,"  they  will  be  content  only  when  it 
is  proved  that  they  are   getting  their  fair  share  of  the 
modern  comforts  and  luxuries  they  have  helped  to  create. 
§  2.   The  main  contention  between   labor  and   capital 
was    most   exactly   presented    in    the   strike   of   1892   at 
Homestead,  four  miles  from  my  Pittsburg  home  at  that 
Homestead     time.    The  world's  most  famous,  if  not  most 
strike.  wealthy    manufacturer    proposed    a    slight 

reduction  in  the  wages  of  his  best  paid  mechanics,  the 
best  paid  in  the  world.  They  struck,  not,  as  too  hasty 
preachers  and  politicians  and  agitators  declared,  in  resist- 
ance to  "starvation  wages,"  but  in  defense  of  the  claim 
that  labor  already  received  less  than  its  just  share  of  the 
joint  product  of  capital  and  labor,  and,  as  a  matter  of 
principle,  should  not  submit  to  further  reductions.     These 

DIAGRAM    SHOWING    RELATIVE     PRICES,    WAGES,     AND    PUR- 
CHASING   POWER    FROM    1840    TO    1892. 

CFrom  The  Voice,  March  7,  1895.     Prepared  by  George  B.  Waldron,  of  The  Voice 
editorial  staff.) 

C 


A,  Relative  prices  in  gold  ;  B,  relative  wages  in  gold  ;  C,  relative  purchasing 
power  of  ten  hours'  labor. 
The  average  ten-hour  wages  will  command  to-day,  or  would  in  1892,  about  three 
times  as  much  in  the  comforts  and  necessaries  of  life  (barring  rent)  as  in  1865,  and 
nearly  two  and  one-half  times  as  much  as  in  1840. 


FROM    THE    STANDPOINT    OF    CAPITAL    AND    LABOR.        II7 


workmen  were  in  not  more  danger,  of  being  pauperized 
than  our  Revolutionary  fathers  would  have  been  if  they 
had  paid  the  small  tax  on  tea.  The  contest  in  each  case 
was  for  rights,  not  for  bread.  The  reduction  affected 
only  321  men,  of  whom  the  highest  grade  were  receiving 
$271  per  month,  which  was  cut  down  to  $23o,being  at  the 
rate  of  $2760  per  year;  while  the  lowest  grade  were  to 
receive  $45  per  month  after  the  reduction,  which  is  more 
than  some  ministerial  salaries."  The  strike  on  the 
part  of  the  other  workmen  was  a  **  sympathetic  strike." 
All  agreed  that  even  the  thousand  a  year  workmen  must 
not  be  cut  down  to  swell  their  master's  million  a  year. 


7/PERCENIOf 
THEWWLTHOFTHFNflllON 


OWNED  Br  f  PER  CENT 
OFJHEF/iniLIES 


J^TOfNl" 

mhimm 


mm 
Qtmm 

OFTHE 


OWNED  BV 

ommm 


y 


F<7«V^  Chart, prepared  by  GeorgeB.Waldron, based  on  an  article, "The  Concentration 
of  Wealth,"  by  Geo.  K.  Holmes,  U.  S.  Census  Expert,  in  the  Political  Science 
Quarterly^  December,  1893. 


AVERAGE   WEALTH   OF   PEOPLE 
OF   U.    S. 

i860,  $514. 
1870,  $780. 
1880,  $870. 
1890,  $1000. 

Total  wealth  1890,  $62,610,000,000. 

—U.  S.  Census  Bulletin. 


PROPORTION   OF   PRODUCT   RE- 
CEIVED   BY    LABOR    IN   U.    S. 

1850,  23  per  ct.  1850  to  1880  the  aver- 
1860,  21.2  "  age  product  increased 
1870,  19         "         83    per   cent.;    average 

wages,  43  per  cent, 
1880,  17.8  (  (Great  Britain  31.50,  about.) 
I  (Continental  Europe,   30.) 
— MulhaWs  History  of  Prices. 


While  labor  probably  gets  higher  wages  in  the  United  States  than  in  Europe,  as 
Mr.  Carnegie  claims,  the  disproportion  between  labor's  share  and  capital's  share  is 
here  greater  than  abroad,  so  that  European  capitalists  in  reality  make  a  fairer  divide 
of  the  joint  products. 


Il8  PRACTICAL    CHRISTIAN    SOCIOLOGY. 

It  is  unfortunate  for  labor's  cause  that  its  main  con- 
tention, tliat  there  must  be  no  further  reductions  in 
labor's  proportion  of  the  joint  product  of  capital  and 
labor,  even  where  wages  are  highest,  but  rather  increase 
wherever  they  are  too  low,  was  not  fought  out  in  that 
representative  case  in  lawful  agitation.  If  the  war  had 
been  one  of  ballots  instead  of  bullets,  there  might  have 
been  by  this  time,  or  in  the  near  future,  a  victory  for  the 
contention  that  the  paternalism  of  protection  should  be 
so  adjusted  as  to  include  the  workman's  wage  as  well  as 
the  manufacturer's  profit,  either  by  a  high  tariff  on  im- 
ported labor  as  well  as  upon  goods,  or  by  some  form  of 
arbitration  *  to  which  corporations  asking  the  public  for 
the  benefits  conferred  by  charters,  and  receiving  tariff 
protection  also,  should  be  required  to  submit  in  cases  of 
such  serious  labor  conflicts  as  would  otherwise  endanger 
the  public  peace  or  cause  a  congestion  of  commerce. 

In  other  strikes  also  it  has  usually  been  the  best  paid 
mechanics  that  have  demanded  higher  wages  or  resisted 


*  A  concise  and  comprehensive  discussion  of  arbitration  is  contained 
in  a  pamphlet  published  by  the  Civic  Federation  of  Chicago,  entitled 
Congress  of  Industrial  Conciliation  and  Arbitration,  which  contains  the 
views  of  most  of  the  specialists  of  this  theme.  See  also  in  Appendix, 
Part  Second,  the  Arbitration  Bill  passed  by  the  National  House  of 
Representatives  in  1895.  A  most  valuable  series  of  symposiums  was 
published  in  The  Voice  during  April,  1895,  on  the  long  tried  and  success- 
ful plan  of  conciliation  in  use  among  the  bricklayers  of  New  York  City  ; 
a  permanent  court  of  arbitration  in  which  employers  and  employees  have 
peacefully  settled  all  disputes  for  many  years.  Just  before  this  book  went 
to  press  a  novel  and  a  radical  plan  of  compulsory  arbitration  was  pro- 
posed in  the  University  Law  Review  in  these  words : 

"  The  next  step,  we  trust,  will  be  to  discover  that  the  existing  courts 
of  equity  are  adequate  and  ready  prepared  tribunals  for  this  purpose  ; 
and  a  short  statute  would  be  ample  which  should  require  that  the  regula- 
tions and  dealings  of  every  corporation  enjoying  a  franchise  from  the 
State  or  nation  shall  be  just  and  fair,  and  that  courts  of  equity  shall  have 
jurisdiction  to  enforce  this  rule  by  the  ordinary  proceedings." 


REVIEW  QUESTIONS. 

§  I.  What  has  been  the  message  of  the  Church  to  rich  and  poor  as  to 
poverty  ?  What  new  watchword  is  suggested  ?  On  what  are  all  parties 
to  the  labor  controversy  generally  agreed?  What  was  Plato's  teaching 
as  to  justice  ?  What  three  divisions  of  the  wealth  of  the  nation  are 
given  ?  Is  the  average  wealth  increasing  or  decreasing  ?  Is  the  average 
proportion  of  the  produce  received  by  labor  increasing  or  decreasing  ? 
How  does  this  proportion  compare  with  the  division  in  Europe  ?  What 
false  plea  is  often  made  in  behalf  of  labor  ?  Has  the  purchasing  power 
of  average  wages  decreased  since  1840?  What  is  labor's  main  con- 
tention ? 

§  2.  Where  was  this  main  contention  most  exactly  presented  ?  How 
was  this  contention  confused  and  defeated?  If  the  contention  were 
pressed  in  politics  what  might  be  expected  in  legislation  ?  What  grade 
of  workmen  most  frequently  strike  ?  Where  are  ' '  starvation  wages  '* 
really  found?     Is  the  average  workman  abjectly  poor? 

§  3.  What  distinction  is  made  between  capitalism  and  capitalists  ? 
What  capitalists  have  been  labor  leaders  and  labor  advocates  ?  Have 
the  concessions  to  labor  made  by  the  privileged  classes  been  achieved 
chiefly  through  force  and  fear?  What  watchwords  for  the  labor 
crusade  are  suggested  ? 

§  4.  What  failure  of  a  materialistic  labor  movement  is  cited  ?  What 
political  reform  was  thus  promoted?  What  further  safeguard  against 
the  bribery  of  labor  voters  is  needed  ? 

§  5.  In  what  three  departments  of  industry  is  justice  to  be  achieved? 
How  can  prices  and  wages  be  made  less  unjust  ?  What  instance  of 
reducing  wages  only  in  hard  times  is  given  ?  In  what  field  is  full  justice 
in  wages  possible  ? 

§  6.  How  are  the  poor  wronged  in  prices? 

^  7.  Have  poor  wages  ever  been  held  to  justify  poor  work  ?  What  is 
the  right  and  wise  ground  for  workmen  and  their  unions  to  take  on  this 
matter?  What  ground  has  been,  and  what  ground  should  be,  taken  as  to 
doing  dishonest  work  on  an  employer's  order  ?  What  were  the  customs 
of  medieval  gilds  as  to  skimped  and  dishonest  work  ?  What  criticism 
has  been  made  on  our  labor  unions  for  lack  of  like  rules  ? 

^  8.  What  is  a  sympathetic  strike  ?  What  is  stated  as  to  the  Chicago 
strike  ? 

§  9.  What  was  its  main  purpose  ?  Why  is  a  labor  trust  not  to  be 
feared  ?     How  are  labor  unions  helpful?    (Note.) 

§  10.  What  grounds  have  we  for  expecting  the  final  triumph  of  indus- 
trial justice  ? 

§  II.  What  is  the  expectation  of  the  ablest  labor  leaders  of  to-day  as 
to  the  time  and  method  of  that  triumph  ?  What  British  and  French 
methods  are  compared  to  each  other  ? 

§  12.  What  form  of  patience  should  the  poor  hold  fast?  What 
injunctions  of  patience  may  be  properly  resented  ?  What  form  of  patience 
is  condemned  and  what  impatience  palliated  ? 


V.   FROM  THE  STANDPOINT  OF   CITIZENSHIP. 

§  I.    **The  powers   that   be   are  ordained    of  God."' 
To  a  Christian  nation  that  ought  not  to  seem  a  new  doc- 
The   Law  of  ^^^^^'     ^^^  when  Rev.  Dr.  W.  J.  Robinson 
Christ  in  Poii-  stood  with  me  in  the   Pennsylvania  House 
*''^^'  of  Representatives  in  defense  of  the  State 

Sabbath  law,  and,  with  the  solemnity  of  a  bishop  address- 
ing a  group  of  young  ministers,  reminded  the  legislators 
before  him  that  they  w^ere  civil  ministers  ''ordained  of 
God,"  ''called  "  to  serve  Him  and  humanity  by  applying 
the  law  of  Christ  to  civil  affairs,  it  was  manifestly  to  many 
of  them,  and  even  to  some  Christians  present,  a  novel 
view  of  politics. 

The  civil  Kingship  of  Christ  is  not  a  mere  denomina- 
tional peculiarity  of  Covenanters  and  United  Presby- 
terians. It  is  nowhere  more  ably  defended  than  in  one 
of  the  Popular  Lectures  of  the  late  Professor  A.  A. 
Hodge,  D.  D.,  of  Princeton,  whose  name,  with  those  of 
equally  illustrious  ministers  from  all  the  great  branches 
of  the  Protestant  Church,  was  enrolled  among  the  vice- 
presidents  of  the  National  Reform  Association,  which 
was  organized  under  the  clouds  of  war,  in  1863,  to  recall 
the  nation  to  its  loyalty  to  the  law  of  Christ,  whose  vio- 
lation in  the  case  of  the  slave  had  brought  on  us  His 
judgments.^ 

When  a  United  States  Senator  declared  that  "  Politics 
owes  no  allegiance  to  the  Decalogue  and  the  Golden 
Rule,"  the  indignant  public  retired,  him  from  politics  to 
prove  that  the  law  of  Christ  had  not  been  so  retired. 
Many  who  think  it  unimportant  to  acknowledge  the  su- 
premacy of  the  Divine  Law  in  the  national  Constitution 


CHRONOLOGICAL    DATA    OF    HUMANE    PROGRESS.       377 

1620.  The  "  Pilgrims  "  landed  at  Plymouth,  Mass.  Having  first 
landed  on  Clark's  Island,  they  remained  there  over  the  Sab- 
bath, despite  the  December  cold,  rather  than  undertake  the 
labor  of  moving  to  the  mainland  on  that  sacred  day.  This 
devotion  to  the  Sabbath  is  now  celebrated  by  an  inscribed 
stone  on  the  island. 


ROCK   ON   CLARK  S   ISLAND. 

1637.  Descartes  promulgated  his  famous  philosophy. 

1638.  Christianity  (Roman  Catholic)  was  expelled  from  Japan 
because  of  the  alleged  political  plottings  of  the  Jesuits  and 
other  Portuguese  missionaries.  All  Christians  were  prohibited 
by  proclamation  from  entering  the  country,  with  the  threat 
that,  if  even  the  king  of  Portugal  or  the  God  of  the  Christians 
should  trespass  on  Japanese  soil,  he  should  pay  the  penalty 
with  his  head.  Harvard  University  founded.  "  Solemn 
League  and  Covenant  "  subscribed  in  Scotland  in  reign  of 
Charles  I.,  in  resistance  to  the  control  of  the  Church  by  the 
State,  whence  comes  the  name  "  Covenanters,"  whose  watch- 
word is  "Christ's  crown." 

About  the  middle  of  this  century  the  first  sawmill  in  Eng- 
land was  torn  down  by  woodsawyers,  who  feared  the  new 
invention  would  destroy  their  business. 

1649.  Charles  I.  executed  by  order  of  Parliament.  His  chaplain, 
Jeremy  Taylor,  wrote  the  famous  books.  Holy  Living  and 
Holy  Dying.  Westminster  Catechism  issued  by  the  Puritan 
divines. 

1653.  Cromwell  made  Lord  Protector.  Milton,  his  secretary,  was 
interested  in  political  and  moral  reform  as  well  as  poetry.     He 


CHRONOLOGICAL    DATA    OF    HUMANE    PROGRESS.       437 


1896,  OCTOBER-DECEMBER. — CELEBRATION   OF   THE   COMPLETION   OF 
NINETEEN   CHRISTIAN   CENTURIES. 

{Appropriate  for  1896  or  1900-1901  A.  D.) 

All  scholars  are  agreed  that  Christ  was  born  a  little  more  than  five 
years  before  our  era,  that  is,  in  5  B.  c.  The  day  is  not  surely  known, 
but  the  known  death  of  Herod  makes  it  certain  that  it  was  some  time 
in  the  last  quarter  of  that  year.  The  last  quarter  of  1895  therefore 
brings  us  to  the  nineteen  hundredth  birthday  of  Christ  in  the  strict  use  of 
the  term.  Colloquially  we  say  when  a  child  is  one  year  old  that  is  his 
first  birthday.  It  is  really  his  second.  Counting  Christ's  first  birthday, 
1895  brings  us  to  the  nineteen  hundredth  birthday  of  Christ,  worthy 
a  whole  quarter's  celebration ;  still  more  the  last  quarter  of  1896,  when 
the  twentieth  century  really  begins. 

First  session,  evening,  Mass  meeting  under  auspices  of  Union 
Preachers'  meeting.  Selections  from  oratorio  of  The  Messiah  by  united 
choirs.  Luke's  story  of  the  "  Christmas  Shepherds,"  recited  by  a  girl ; 
Matthew's  story  of  the  "  Magi,"  recited  by  a  boy.  Addresses  (fifteen 
minutes  each):  "  How  are  Christian  Churches  Superior  to  Pagan  Tem- 
ples of  Greece  and  Rome?"  '*  How  Superior  to  Heathen  Temples  of 
To-day?"  "In  What  Respects  are  Christian  Churches  below  Christ's 
Standard?"  "  By  What  Forces  Can  They  Be  Brought  up  to  It  ?' 

Second  session,  afternoon,  Congress  of  societies  of  Christian  women, 
such  as  W.  C.  T.  U,,  King's  Daughters,  etc.  Prelude  of  brief  select 
readings.  Addresses,  "  How  are  Women  Better  off  in  Christian  Lands 
than  in  Ancient  Pagan  Lands?"  "  How  Better  off  than  in  Heathen 
Lands  of  To-day?"  "  In  What  Respects  are  Christian  Women  Below 
Christ's  Standard  ?  "  "By  What  Forces  Can  They  be  Brought  up  to  It  ?  " 

Third  session,  evening,  Mass  meeting  under  the  auspices  of  the  lay 
officers  of  the  churches.  Addresses:  "How  is  Business  in  Christian 
Lands  Morally  Better  than  it  was  in  Ancient  Pagan  Lands?"  "How 
Better  than  in  Heathen  Lands  of  To-day?"  "How  are  the  Business 
Customs  of  To-day  Below  Christ's  Standard?"  "  By  ^Vhat  Forces  Can 
They  be  Brought  up  to  It  ?  " 

Fourth  session,  afternoon  at  close  of  public  schools,  Convention  of 
Christian  boys'  and  girls'  societies,  such  as  Junior  Y.  M.  C,  A.,  Junior 
Endeavorers,  Junior  Epworth  Leagues,  Loyal  Legions,  etc.  Each 
society  to  furnish  one  brief  declamation,  or  solo,  or  chorus  for  intro- 
ductory service.  Addresses:  "How  are  Boys  and  Girls  in  Christian 
Lands  Better  off  than  Boys  and  Girls  in  Ancient  Pagan  Lands  ?  "  "  How 
Better  off  than  Boys  and  Girls  of  the  Heathen  Lands  To-day  ?  "  "  How 


ON  THE  WHOLE  CIRCLE  OF  CHRISTIAN  REFORMS. 

Practical     Christian     Sociology. 

By   Rev.    Wilbur    F.   Crafts,  Ph.   D.      i2mo,   Illustrated  with 
twenty-two  portraits  and  other  illustrations.     524  pp.     Price,  $1.50. 

Letters  on  the  Lectures,  from  the  Princeton  Seminary  Faculty. 


Princeton,  February  15,  1895. 
My  Dear  Mr.  Crafts  : 

The  Faculty  of  the  Seminary  have  wished 
me  to  express  to  you  their  appreciation  of 
the  lectures  on  Social  Problems  which  you 
delivered  to  the  students  last  week,  and 
their  thanks  to  you  for  the  course.  We 
recognize  the  wide  study  which  you  have 
given  to  these  subjects,  and  the  large  num- 
ber of  valuable  facts  which  you  have  col- 
lected. We  recognize  also  in  your  treat- 
ment of  the  facts  the  caution  and  the  desire 
to  be  fair  and  thorough  which  are  necessary 
for  a  proper  discussion  of  such  practical  and 
important  topics.  You  seem  to  us  bent  on 
apprehending  the  whole  truth,  and  in  doing 
justice  to  all  sides  of  each  case.  We  are 
especially  gratified  by  your  presentation  of 
the  idea  that  religion  as  well  as  economic 
science  has  a  part  to  do  in  the  solution  of 
social  problems,  and  we  believe  that  our 
students  will  be  better  prepared  by  your 
lectures  to  exert  the  proper  influence  in 
social  and  civil  relations  which  is  possible 
to  ministers  of  the  Gospel.  We  congratu- 
late you  heartily  on  the  ability  you  showed 
in  the  preparation  of  your  lectures,  and 
feel  sure  that  you  have  done  a  most  useful 
work  in  delivering  them  before  the  Semi- 
nary.    Please  accept  our  thanks. 

Very  sincerely  yours, 
George  T.  Purves. 


Princeton,  February  18,  1895. 
Rev.  Mr.  Crafts  : 

Dear  Sir  :  I  wish  to  say  to  you  how 
highly  I,  in  common  with  my  colleagues 
and  your  auditors  generally,  appreciated 
the  brief  course  of  lectures  which  you 
have  delivered  at  the  Seminary  on  so- 
ciology. The  practical  acquaintance 
which  you  manifested  with  the  numerous 
and  complicated  questions  arising  under 
this  theme  surprised  and  delighted  me. 
The  wise  reserve  shown  in  avoiding  hasty 
and  inconsiderate  judgments  upon  mat- 
ters that  require  further  investigation, 
and  the  impartial  attitude  taken  in 
regard  to  matters  which  have  led  to 
serious  strife  and  agitation,  cannot  be 
too  highly  commended.  And  the  high- 
toned  Christian  principle  which  marked 
the  entire  discussion,  without  running 
off  into  extravagance  and  excess,  in- 
spired confidence  in  the  solution  which 
must  thus  be  ultimately  reached.  There 
is  but  one  feeling  among  us,  that  of 
high  gratification  that  we  have  been  per- 
mitted to  hear  these  instructive  and  valu- 
able lectures,  and  we  are  greatly  obliged 
to  you  for  consenting  to  deliver  them 
to  our  students. 

Ver>'  truly  yours, 

W.  Henry  Green. 


WHAT  IS  SAID  OF  THE  BOOK. 


Prof.  R.  T.  Ely,  Dean  of  the  School 
of  Economics  and  Politics,  University  of 
Wisconsin:  "  I  am  greatly  pleased  with 
it.  It  cannot  fail  to  have  a  most  stimu- 
lating and  wholesome  effect  upon  the 
churches." 

Prof.  Albion  W.  Small,  Head  Pro- 
fessor of  Sociology  in  Chicago  University: 
"  A  decided  acquisition  to  our  Sociolog- 
ical literature.  I  have  already  recom- 
mended it  for  use  in  several  colleges,  to 
follow  up  Small  and  Vincent." 

Bishop  John  H.  Vincent,  D.  D., 
LL.  D.:  "  This  book  is  literally  ^^C/^^^ 
with  facts  and  theories  and  practical 
counsels.  There  is  enough  wisdom  in  it 
to  set  up  a  whole  millennium." 

Frances  E.  Willard,  President  Na- 
tional W.  C.  T.  U.:  "  It  is  packed  with 
just  the  information  that  a  'Christian  at 
Work  '  most  needs  to  know,  and  which 
he  might  search  for  through  a  hundred 
volumes  in  vain.  .  .  I  wish  that  it 
might  be  studied  in  all  the  local  unions  of 
the  W.  C.  T.  U." 

Carroll  D.  Wright,  Commissioner  of 
Labor,  Washington,  D.  C.  :  "I  consider  it 
an  exceedingly  important  and  valuable 
work." 


Rev.  F.  E.  Clark,  D.  D.,  President 
of  the  United  Society  of  Christian  En- 
deavor :  "  I  am  much  delighted  with  it. 
It  is  popular  but  scholarly,  and  treats  of 
the  profoundest  and  liveliest  questions  of 
the  present  day  in  away  that  is  sure  to  be 
helpful." 

Rev.  B.  Fay  Mills,  (the  well-known 
Evangelist):  "  It  is  exceedingly  suggest- 
ive and  helpful,  and  has  already  been  of 
value  to  me  in  connection  with  some  of 
the  practical  sociological  talks  that  I  am 
delivering  these  days  in  connection  with 
my  evangelistic  work.  1  find  the  public 
ripe  for  this  teaching,  and  am  rejoiced  to 
be  able  to  recommend  your  book  in  the 
highest  terms." 

The  Boston  Times  :  "  This  is  a  book 
to  read  carefully  and  quietly,  and  to  pre- 
serve for  the  fund  of  facts  and  informa- 
tion which  is  contained  in  it." 

The  Religious  Telescope,  Dayton, 
Ohio  :  "  '  Practical  Christian  Sociology,' 
is  one  of  the  latest  and  best  of  books  on 
the  great  social  question  of  the  day. 
Dr.  W.  F.  Crafts,  its  author,  is  one  of  the 
best  of  authorities." 


FUNK  &  WAGNALLS  COMPANY,  Publishers,  30  Lafayette  Place,  N.  Y. 


Princeton   Theological   Seminary   Libraries 


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